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COMPLETE WORKS OF 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 




COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY M. P. RICE. 



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FKOM AN ORIGINAL, UNRETOUCHKD NEGATIVE, MADE IN 1864, AT THE TIME THE PRESI- 
DENT COMMISSIONED ULYSSES 8. GRANT LIEUTENANT-GENERAL AND COMMANDER OF 
ALL THE ARMIES OF THE REPUBLIC. IT IS STATED THAT THIS NEGATIVE, "WITH 
ONE OF GENERAL U. S. GRANT," WAS MADE IN COMMEMORATION OF THAT EVENT. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



COMPLETE WORKS 



COMPRISING HIS SPEECHES, LETTERS, STATE 
PAPERS, AND MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS 



EDITED BY 

JOHN G. NICOLAY 
AND JOHN HAY 



VOLUME ONE 




^,^t<i««^ 



NEW YORK 

THE CENTURY CO. 

1920 



.91 



Copyright, 1894, 

by John G. Nicolat 

andJoHN Hat. 



my 



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PREFACE 



"May 30, 1893. 

^^My dear Kicolay: As you and Colonel Hay have now brought 
your great work to a most successful conclusion by the pubhcation 
of your Hfe of my father, I hope and request that you and he will 
supplement it by collecting, editing, and publishing the speeches, 
letters, state papers, and miscellaneous writings of my father. You 
and Colonel Hay have my consent and authority to obtain for your- 
selves such protection by copyright, or otherwise, in respect to the 
whole or any part of such a collection, as I might for any reason be 
entitled to have. Believe me, very sincerely yours, 

"Robert T. Lincoln. 

" John G. Nicolay." 

Both in fulfilment of the request contained in the foregoing let- 
ter, and in execution of a long-cherished design, we present to the 
public this edition of the Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, 
hoping and trusting that it will be received as a welcome addition 
to American historical Kterature. 

John G. Nicolay. 

John Hay. 



2-S 



COMPLETE WORKS OF 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

VOLUME ONE 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

March 9, 1832.— Address to the People of Sangamon County. 

Fellow-citizens: Having become a candidate for the honorable 
office of one of your Representatives in the next General Assembly 
of this State, in accordance with an established custom and the prin- 
ciples of true Republicanism it becomes my duty to make known to 
you, the people whom I propose to represent, my sentiments with 
regard to local affairs. 

Time and experience have verified to a demonstration the jjublic 
utility of internal improvements. That the poorest and most thinly 
populated countries would be greatly benefited by the opening of 
good roads, and in the clearing of navigable streams within their 
limits, is what no person wiU deny. Yet it is folly to undertake 
works of this or any other kind without first knowing that we are 
able to finish them, — as half -finished work generally proves to be 
labor lost. There cannot justly be any objection to having rail- 
roads and canals, any more than to other good things, provided they 
cost nothing. The only objection is to paying for them ; and the 
objection arises from the want of ability to pay. 

With respect to the County of Sangamon, some more easy means 
of communication than it now possesses, for the purpose of facili- 
tating the task of exporting the surplus products of its fertile soil, 
and importing necessary articles from abroad, are indispensably 
necessary. A meeting has been held of the citizens of Jacksonville 
and the adjacent country, for the purpose of deliberating and in- 
quiring into the expediency of constructing a raih'oad from some 
eligible point on the Illinois River, through the town of Jackson- 
ville, in Morgan County, to the town of Springfield, in Sangamon 
County. This is, indeed, a very desirable object. No other im- 
provement that reason will justify us in hoping for can equal in 
utility the railroad. It is a never-failing source of communication 
between places of business remotely situated from each other. 
Upon the railroad the regular progress of commercial intercourse 
is not interrupted by either high or low water, or freezing weather, 
which are the principal difficulties that render our future hopes of 
water communication precarious and uncertain. 

Yet, however desirable an object the construction of a railroad 
through our country may be ; however high our imaginations may 
Vol. I.— 1. 



2 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

be heated at thoughts of it, — there is always a heart-appalling shock 
accompanying the amount of its cost, which forces us to shrink from 
our pleasing anticipations. The probable cost of this contemplated 
railroad is estimated at $290,000 ; the bare statement of which, in 
my opinion, is sufficient to justify the belief that the improvement 
of the Sangamon River is an object much better suited to our infant 
resources. 

Respecting this view, I think I may say, without the fear of being 
contradicted, that its navigation may be rendered completely prac- 
ticable as high as the mouth of the South Fork, or probably higher, 
to vessels of from twenty -five to thirty tons burden, for at least one 
half of all common years, and to vessels of much greater burden a 
part of the time. From my peculiar circumstances, it is probable 
that for the last twelve months I have given as particular attention 
to the stage of the water in this river as any other person in the 
country. In the month of March, 1831, in company with others, I 
commenced the building of a flatboat on the Sangamon, and finished 
and took her out in the course of the spring. Since that time I have 
been concerned in the mill at New Salem. These circumstances are 
sufficient evidence that I have not been very inattentive to the stages 
of the water. The time at which we crossed the mill-dam bein^ in 
the last days of April, the water was lower than it had been since 
the breaking of winter in February, or than it was for several weeks 
after. The principal difficulties we encountered in descending the 
river were from the drifted timber, which obstructions all know are 
not difficult to be removed. Knowing almost precisely the height 
of water at that time, I believe I am safe in saying that it has as 
often been higher as lower since. 

From this view of the subject it appears that my calculations with 
regard to the navigation of the Sangamon cannot but be founded 
in reason; but, whatever may be its natural advantages, certain it 
is that it never can be practically useful to any gi'eat extent with- 
out being gi-eatly improved by art. The drifted timber, as I have 
before mentioned, is the most formidable barrier to this object. Of 
all parts of this river, none will require so much labor in propor- 
tion to make it navigable as the last thirty or thirty-five miles ; and 
going with the meanderings of the channel, when we are this dis- 
tance above its mouth we are only between twelve and eighteen 
miles above Beardstown in something near a straight direction; 
and this route is upon such low ground as to retain water in many 
places during the season, and in all parts such as to draw two thirds 
or three fourths of the river water at all high stages. 

This route is on prairie-land the whole distance, so that it appears 
to me, by removing the turf a sufficient width, and damming up the 
old channel, the whole river in a short time would wash its way 
through, thereby curtailing the distance and increasing the velocity 
of the current very considerably, while there would be no timber 
on the banks to obstruct its navigation in future ; and being nearly 
straight, the timber which might float in at the head would be apt 
to go clear through. There are also many places above this where 
the river, in its zigzag course, forms such complete peninsulas as 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 3 

to be easier to cut at the necks than to remove the obstructions from 
the bends, which, if done, would also lessen the distance. 

What the cost of this work would be, I am unable to say. It is 
probable, however, that it would not be greater than is common to 
streams of the same length. Finally, I believe the improvement of 
the Sangamon River to be vastly important and highly desirable to 
the people of the county ; and, if elected, any measure in the legis- 
lature having this for its object, which may appear judicious, will 
meet my approbation and receive my support. 

It appeal's that the practice of loaning money at exorbitant rates 
of interest has already been opened as a field for discussion ; so I 
suppose I may enter upon it without claiming the honor, or risking 
the danger which may await its first explorer. It seems as though 
we are never to have an end to this baneful and corroding system, 
acting almost as prejudicially to the general interests of the commu- 
nity as a direct tax of several thousand dollars annually laid on 
each county for the benefit of a few individuals only, unless there 
be a law made fixing the limits of usury. A law for this purpose, 
I am of opinion, may be made without materially injuring any class 
of people. In cases of extreme necessity, there could always be 
means found to cheat the law; while in all other cases it would 
have its intended effect. I would favor the passage of a law on this 
subject which might not be very easily evaded. Let it be such that 
the labor and difficulty of evading it could only be justified in cases 
of greatest necessity. 

Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan 
or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most 
important subject which we as a people can be engaged in. That 
every man may receive at least a moderate education, and thereby 
be enabled to read the liistories of his own and other countries, by 
which he may duly appreciate the value of our free institutions, ap- 
pears to be an object of vital importance, even on this account alone, 
to say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction to be derived from 
all being able to read the Scriptui'es, and other works both of a reli- 
gious and moral nature, for themselves. 

For my part, I desire to see the time when education — and by its 
means, morality, sobriety, enterprise, and industry — shall become 
much more general than at present, and should be gratified to have 
it in my power to contribute something to the advancement of any 
measure which might have a tendency to accelerate that happy 
period. 

With regard to existing laws, some alterations are thought to be 
necessary. Many respectable men have suggested that our estray 
laws, the law respecting the issuing of executions, the road law, and 
some others, are deficient in their present form, and require altera- 
tions. But, considering the gi'eat probability that the framers of 
those laws were wiser than myself, I should prefer not meddling 
with them, unless they were first attacked by others ; in which case 
I should feel it both a privilege and a duty to take that stand which, 
in my view, might tend most to the advancement of justice. 

But, fellow-citizens, I shall conclude. Considering the great de- 



4 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

gree of modesty which should always attend youth, it is probable 
I have already been more presuming than becomes me. However, 
upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have 
thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them ; but, 
holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be 
right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opin- 
ions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them. 

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be 
true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that 
of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself 
worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this 
ambition is yet to be developed. I am young, and unknown to 
many of you. I was born, and have ever remained, in the most 
humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or popular relations or 
friends to recommend me. My case is thrown exclusively upon the 
independent voters of the country; and, if elected, they will have 
conferred a favor upon me for which I shall be unremitting in my 
labors to compensate. But, if the good people in their wisdom 
shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar 
with disappointments to be very much chagrined. 

Your friend and fellow-citizen, A. Lincoln. 

New Salem, March 9, 1832. 

April 28, 1832.— Receipt for Arms. 

Special Order (No.—). Beardstown, April 28, 1832. 

The Brigade Inspector, having inspected Captain Abraham Lin- 
coln's Company and mustered them into service, reports that thirty 
guns are wanting to arm the Company completely. Quartermaster- 
General Edwards will furnish the Captain with that number of 
arms, if to be had in his department. 

John J. Hardin, Brig. Major. 
By order of Brigadier-General Samuel Whiteside. 
Commanding B. M. V. Illinois. 

Received April 28, 1832, for the use of the Sangamon County 
company under my command, thirty muskets, bayonets, screws, and 
wipers, which I oblige myself to return upon demand. 

A. Lincoln, Captain. 



Gvns. 

19 
3 
1 
1 
1 
1 



Bayonets. 

15 
2 
1 
1 
1 



Screws. 

9 
1 

4 



Wipers. 

21 
1 
1 



26 



20 



14 



23 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



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ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 




(Indorsement in pencil on the foregoing.) 

A. Lincoln— 5 days at $3.00 $15.00 

John A. Kelsoe, chain bearer for 5 days at 75 cts 3.75 

Robert Lloyd, 5 days at 75 cts 3.75 

Hugh Armstrong, for services as axeman, 5 days at 75 cts . 3.75 

A. Lincoln, for making plat and report 2.50 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEBS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 7 

June 13, 1836. — Aiwouncement of Political Views. 

New Salem, June 13, 1836. 

To the Editor of the "Journal": In your paper of last Saturday 
I see a communication, over the signature of "Many Voters," in 
which the candidates who are announced in the "Journal" are 
called upon to " show their hands." Agreed. Here 's mine. 

I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who assist 
in bearing its biu'dens. Consequently, I go for admitting all whites 
to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means 
excluding females). 

If elected, I shall consider the whole people of Sangamon my con- 
stituents, as well those that oppose as those that support me. 

While acting as their representative, I shall be governed by their 
will on all subjects upon which I have the means of knowing what 
their will is ; and upon all others I shall do what my own judgment 
teaches me will best advance their interests. Whether elected or 
not, I go for distributing the proceeds of the sales of the public 
lands to the several States, to enable our State, in common with 
others, to dig canals and construct railroads without borrowing 
money and paying the interest on it. 

If alive on the first Monday in November, I shaU vote for Hugh 
L. White for President. Very respectfully, 

A. Lincoln. 

June 21, 1836. — Letter to Robert Allen. 

New Salem, June 21, 1836. 

Dear Colonel : I am told that during my absence last week you 
passed through this place, and stated publicly that you were in pos- 
session of a fact or facts which, if known to the public, would en- 
tirely destroy the prospects of N. W. Edwards and myself at the 
ensuing election ; but that, through favor to iis, you should forbear 
to divulge them. No one has needed favors more than I, and, gen- 
erally, few have been less unwilling to accept them ; but in this case 
favor to me would be injustice to the public, and therefore I must 
beg your pardon for declining it. That I once had the confidence 
of the people of Sangamon, is sufficiently evident; and if I have 
since done anything, either by design or misadventure, which if 
known would subject me to a forfeiture of that confidence, he that 
knows of that thing, and conceals it, is a traitor to his country's 
interest. 

I find myself wholly unable to form any conjecture of what fact 
or facts, real or supposed, you spoke ; but my opinion of your ve- 
racity will not permit me for a moment to doubt that you at least 
believed what you said. I am flattered with the personal regard 
you manifested for me ; but I do hope that, on more mature reflec- 
tion, you will view the public interest as a paramount consideration, 
and therefore determine to let the worst come. I here assure you 
that the candid statement of facts on your part, however low it 



8 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

may sink me, shall never break the tie of personal friendship be- 
tween us. I wish an answer to this, and you are at liberty to pub- 
lish both, if you choose. Very respectfully, 
Col. Robert Allen. A. Lincoln. 

December 13, 1836. — Letter to Miss Mary Owens. 

Vandalia, December 13, 1836. 

Mary : I have been sick ever since my arrival, or I should have 
written sooner. It is but little difference, however, as I have very 
little even yet to write. And more, the longer I can avoid the mor- 
tification of looking in the post-office for your letter and not finding 
it, the better. You see I am mad about that old letter yet. I don't 
like very well to risk you again. I '11 try you once more, anyhow. 

The new State House is not yet finished, and consequently the 
legislature is doin^ little or nothing. The governor delivered an 
inflammatory political message, and it is expected there will be some 
sparring between the parties about it as soon as the two Houses get 
to business. Taylor delivered up his petition for the new county 
to one of our members this morning. I am told he despairs of its 
success, on account of all the members from Morgan County oppos- 
ing it. There are names enough on the petition, I think, to justify 
the members from our county in going for it; but if the members 
from Morgan oppose it, which they say they will, the chance wiU 
be bad. 

Our chance to take the seat of government to Springfield is better 
than I expected. An internal-improvement convention was held 
here since we met, which recommended a loan of several millions of 
dollars, on the faith of the State, to construct railroads. Some of the 
legislature are for it, and some against it ; which has the majority 
I cannot tell. There is great strife and struggling for the office of 
the United States Senator here at this time. It is probable we shall 
ease their pains in a few days. The opposition men have no candi- 
date of their own, and consequently they will smile as complacently 
at the angry snarl of the contending Van Buren candidates and their 
respective friends as the Christian does at Satan's rage. You recol- 
lect that I mentioned at the outset of this letter that I had been un- 
well. That is the fact, though I believe I am about well now ; but 
that, with other things I cannot account for, have conspired, and 
have gotten my spirits so low that I feel that I would rather be any 
place in the world than here. I really cannot endure the thought 
of staying here ten weeks. Write back as soon as you get this, and, 
if possible, say something that will please me, for really I have not 
been pleased since I left you. This letter is so dry and stupid that 
I am ashamed to send it, but with my present feelings I cannot do 
any better. 

Give my best respects to Mr. and Mrs. Able and family. 

Your friend, Lincoln. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



January 27, 1837. — Address before the Young Men's Lyceum 
OF Springfield, Illinois. 

As a subject for the remarks of the evening, " The perpetuation of 
our political institutions " is selected. 

In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the 
American people, find our account running under date of the nine- 
teenth century of the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peace- 
ful possession of the fairest portion of the earth as regards extent 
of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find our- 
selves under the government of a system of political institutions 
conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty 
than any of which the history of former times tells us. We, when 
mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal inheri- 
tors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquire- 
ment or establishment of them; they are a legacy bequeathed us by 
a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed, 
race of ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed 
it) to possess themselves, and through themselves us, of this goodly 
land, and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys a political edifice 
of liberty and equal rights; 'tis ours only to transmit these — 
the former unprofaned by the foot of an invader, the latter unde- 
cayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation — to the latest 
generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task 
gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and 
love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faith- 
fully to perform. 

How then shall we perform it ? At what point shall we expect 
the approach of danger ? By what means shall we fortify against it? 
Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean 
and crush us at a blow ? Never ! All the armies of Europe, Asia, 
and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own 
excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a com- 
mander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a 
track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. 

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected ? I 
answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot 
come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves 
be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live 
through all time, or die by suicide. 

I hope I am over wary ; but if I am not, there is even now some- 
thing of ill omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard 
for law which pervades the country — the growing disposition to 
substitute the wild and furious passions in lieu of the sober 
judgment of courts, and the worse than savage mobs for the execu- 
tive ministers of justice. This disposition is awfully fearful in any 
community; and that it now exists in ours, though grating to our 
feelings to admit, it would be a violation of truth and an insult to 
our intelligence to deny. Accounts of outrages committed hy mobs 
form the every-day news of the times. They have pervaded the 



10 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

country from New England to Louisiana ; they are neither peculiar 
to the eternal snows of the former nor the burning suns of the lat- 
ter ; they are not the creature of climate, neither are they confined 
to the slaveholding or the non-slaveholding States. Alike they 
spring up among the pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, 
and the order-loving citizens of the land of steady habits. What- 
ever then their cause may be, it is common to the whole country. 

It would be tedious as well as useless to recount the horrors of all 
of them. Those happening in the State of Mississippi and at St» 
Louis are perhaps the most dangerous in example and revolting to 
humanity. In the Mississippi case they first commenced by hanging 
the regular gamblers — a set of men certainly not following for a 
livelihood a veiy useful or very honest occupation, but one which, 
so far from being forbidden by the laws, was actually licensed by 
an act of the legislature passed but a single year before. Next, 
negroes suspected of conspiring to raise an insurrection were 
caught up and hanged in all parts of the State; then, white men 
supposed to be leagued with the negroes; and finally, strangers 
from neighboring States, going thither on business, were in many 
instances subjected to the same fate. Thus went on this process of 
hanging, from gamblers to negroes, from negroes to white citizens, 
and from these to strangers, till dead men were seen literaUy dang- 
ling from the boughs of trees upon every roadside, and in numbers 
almost sufficient to rival the native Spanish moss of the country as 
a drapery of the forest. 

Turn then to that horror-striking scene at St. Louis. A single 
victim only was sacrificed there. This story is very short, and is 
perhaps the most highly tragic of anything of its length that has 
ever been witnessed in real life. A mulatto man by the name of 
Mcintosh was seized in the street, dragged to the suburbs of the 
city, chained to a tree, and actually burned to death ; and all within 
a single hour fi-om the time he had been a freeman attending to his 
own business and at peace with the world. 

Such are the effects of mob law, and such are the scenes becoming 
more and more frequent in this land so lately famed for love of law 
and order, and the stories of which have even now grown too fa- 
miliar to attract anything more than an idle remark. 

But you are perhaps ready to ask, " What has this to do with the 
perpetuation of our political institutions ? " I answer^ " It has much 
to do with it." Its direct consequences are, comparatively speaking, 
but a small evil, and much of its danger consists in the proneness 
of our minds to regard its direct as its only consequences. Ab- 
stractly considered, the hanging of the gamblers at Vicksburg was 
of but little consequence. They constitute a portion of population 
that is worse than useless in any community ; and their death, if no 
pernicious example be set by it, is never matter of reasonable regret 
with any one. If they were annually swept from the stage of exis- 
tence by the plague or smallpox, honest men would perhaps be 
much profited by the operation. Similar too is the correct reason- 
ing in regard to the burning of the negro at St. Louis. He had 
forfeited his life by the perpetration of an outrageous murder upon 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 11 

one of the most worthy and respectable citizens of the city, and had 
he not died as he did, he must have died by the sentence of the law 
in a very short time afterward. As to him alone, it was as well the 
way it was as it could otherwise have been. But the example in 
either case was fearful. When men take it in their heads to-day to 
hang gamblers or burn murderers, they should recollect that in the 
confusion usually attending such transactions they will be as likely 
to hang or bum some one who is neither a gambler nor a murderer 
as one who is, and that, acting upon the example they set, the mob 
of to-morrow may, and probably will, hang or burn some of them 
by the very same mistake. And not only so ; the innocent, those 
who have ever set their faces against violations of law in every shape, 
alike with the guilty fall victims to the ravages of mob law; and thus 
it goes on, step by step, till all the walls erected for the defense of the 
persons and property of individuals are trodden down and disre- 
garded. But all this, even, is not the full extent of the evil. By such 
examples, by instances of the perpetrators of such acts going unpun- 
ished, the lawless in spirit are encouraged to become lawless in 
practice ; and having been used to no restraint but dread of punish- 
ment, they thus become absolutely unrestrained. Having ever re- 
garded government as their deadliest bane, they make a jubilee of 
the suspension of its operations, and pray for nothing so much as 
its total annihilation. While, on the other hand, good men, men 
who love tranquillity, who desire to abide by the laws and enjoy their 
benefits, who would gladly spill their blood in the defense of their 
country, seeing their property destroyed, their families insulted, 
and their lives endangered, their persons injured, and seeing no- 
thing in prospect that forebodes a change for the better, become tired 
of and disgusted with a government that offers them no protection, 
and are not much averse to a change in which they imagine they 
have nothing to lose. Thus, then, by the operation of this mobo- 
cratic spirit which all must admit is now abroad in the land, the 
strongest bulwark of any government, and particularly of those 
constituted like ours, may effectually be broken down and de- 
stroyed — I mean the attachment of the people. Whenever this 
effect shall be produced among us ; whenever the vicious portion of 
population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and 
thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision-stores, 
throw printing-presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn 
obnoxious persons at pleasure and with impunity, depend on it, 
this government cannot last. By such things the feelings of the 
best citizens will become more or less alienated from it, and thus it 
will be left without friends, or with too few, and those few too weak 
to make their friendship effectual. At such a time, and under such 
circumstances, men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be 
wanting to seize the opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that 
fair fabric which for the last half century has been the fondest 
hope of the lovers of freedom throughout the world. 

I know the American people are much attached to their govern- 
ment ; I know they would suffer much for its sake ; I know they 
would endure evils long and patiently before they would ever think 



12 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of exchanging it for another, — yet, notwithstanding all this, if the 
laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their rights to be 
secure in their persons and property are held hy no better tenure 
than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their affections from 
the government is the natural consequence; and to that, sooner or 
later, it must come. 

Here, then, is one point at which danger may be expected. 

The question recurs, "How shall we fortify against it?" The 
answer is simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every 
well-wisher to his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution 
never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country, and 
never to tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of 
seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, 
so to the support of the Constitution and laws let every American 
pledge his life, his propertv, and his sacred honor — let every man 
remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his 
father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children's lib- 
erty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American 
mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap ; let it be taught 
in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in 
primers, spelling-books, and in almanacs ; let it be preached from 
the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of 
justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the 
nation ; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the 
grave and the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and condi- 
tions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars. 

While ever a state of feeling such as this shall universally or 
even very generally prevail throughout the nation, vain will be 
every effort, and fruitless every attempt, to subvert our national 
freedom. 

When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of aU the laws, let 
me not be understood as saying there are no bad laws, or that 
grievances may not arise for the redress of which no legal pro- 
visions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I 
do mean to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should be 
repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue in force, for 
the sake of example they should be religiously observed. So also 
in unprovided cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be 
made for them with the least possible delay, but till then let them, 
if not too intolerable, be borne with. 

There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. 
In any case that may arise, as, for instance, the promulgation of 
abolitionism, one of two positions is necessarily true — that is, the 
thing is right within itself, and therefore deserves the protection 
of all law and all good citizens, or it is wrong, and therefore proper to 
be prohibited by legal enactments ; and in neither case is the inter- 
position of mob law either necessary, justifiable, or excusable. 

But it may be asked, " Why suppose danger to our political insti- 
tutions ? Have we not preserved them for more than fifty years ? 
And why may we not for fifty times as long?" 

We hope there is no suflficient reason. We hope all danger may 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 13 

be overcome ; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would 
itself be extremely dangerous. There are now, and will hereafter 
be, many causes, dangerous in their tendency, which have not ex- 
isted heretofore, and which are not too insignificant to merit atten- 
tion. That our government should have been maintained in its 
original form, from its establishment until now, is not much to be 
wondered at. It had many props to support it through that pe- 
riod, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through that 
period it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now it is 
understood to be a successful one. Then, all that sought celebrity 
and fame and distinction expected to find them in the success of 
that experiment. Their all was staked upon it ; their destiny was 
inseparably linked with it. Their ambition aspired to display be- 
fore an admiring world a practical demonstration of the truth of a 
proposition which had hitherto been considered at best no better 
than problematical — namely, the capability of a people to govern 
themselves. If they succeeded they were to be immortalized ; their 
names were to be transferred to counties, and cities, and rivers, and 
mountains ; and to be revered and sung, toasted through aU time. 
If they failed, they were to be called knaves, and fools, and fanatics 
for a fleeting hour ; then to sink and be forgotten. They succeeded. 
The experiment is successful, and thousands have won their death- 
less names in making it so. But the game is caught ; and I believe 
it is true that with the catching end the pleasures of the chase. 
This field of glory is harvested, and the crop is already appropriated. 
But new reapers will arise, and they too will seek a field. It is to 
deny what the history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that 
men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring up amongst 
us. And when they do, they will as natui*ally seek the gratification 
of their ruling passion as others have done before them. The 
question then is. Can that gratification be found in supporting and 
maintaining an edifice that has been erected by others ? Most cer- 
tainly it cannot. Many great and good men, sufficiently qualified 
for any task they should undertake, may ever be found whose am- 
bition would aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, a guber- 
natorial or a presidential chair ; but such belong not to the family 
of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle. What ! think you these places 
would satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon ? Never ! 
Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto 
unexplored. It sees no distinction in adding story to story upon 
the monuments of fame erected to the memory of others. It de- 
nies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to 
tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It 
thirsts and bm-ns for distinction ; and if possible, it will have it, 
whether at the expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving free- 
men. Is it unreasonable, then, to expect that some man possessed 
of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition suflfieient to push it to 
its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among us ? And 
when such an one does, it will require the people to be united %vith 
each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally in- 
telligent, to successfully frustrate his designs. 



14 ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would 
as willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, 
yet, that opportunity being jjast, and nothing left to be done in the 
way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down. 

Here then is a probable case, highly dangerous, and such an one 
as could not have well existed heretofore. 

Another reason which once was, but which, to the same extent, is 
now no more, has done much in maintaining our institutions thus 
far. I mean the powerful influence which the interesting scenes of 
the Revolution had upon the passions of the people as distinguished 
from their judgment. By this influence, the jealousy, envy, and 
avarice incident to our nature, and so common to a state of peace, 
prosperity, and conscious strength, were for the time in a great 
measure smothered and rendered inactive, while the deep-rooted 
principles of hate, and the powerful motive of revenge, instead of 
being turned against each other, were directed exclusively against 
the British nation. And thus, from the force of circumstances, the 
basest principles of our nature were either made to lie dormant, or 
to become the active agents in the advancement of the noblest of 
causes — that of establishing and maintaining civil and religious 
liberty. 

But this state of feeling must fade, is fading, has faded, with the 
circumstances that produced it. 

I do not mean to say that the scenes of the Revolution are now 
or ever will be entirely forgotten, but that, like everything else, 
they must fade upon the memory of the world, and grow more and 
more dim by the lapse of time. In history, we hope, they will be 
read of, and recounted, so long as the Bible shall be read; but 
even granting that they will, their influence cannot be what it here- 
tofore has been. Even then they cannot be so universally known 
nor so vividly felt as they were by the generation just gone to rest. 
At the close of that struggle, nearly every adult male had been a 
participator in some of its scenes. The consequence was that of 
those scenes, in the form of a husband, a father, a son, or a brother, 
a living history was to be found in every family — a history bearing 
the indubitable testimonies of its own authenticity, in the limbs 
mangled, in the scars of wounds received, in the midst of the 
very scenes related — a history, too, that could be read and un- 
derstood alike by all, the wise and the ignorant, the learned and the 
unlearned. But those histories are gone. They can be read no 
more forever. They were a fortress of strength ; but what invad- 
ing foeman could never do, the silent artillery of time has done — 
the leveling of its walls. They are gone. They were a forest of 
giant oaks ; but the all-restless hurricane has swept over them, and 
left only here and there a lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, 
shorn of its foliage, unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few 
more gentle breezes, and to combat with its mutilated limbs a few 
more ruder storms, then to sink and be no more. 

They were pillars of the temple of liberty; and now that they 
have crumbled away that temple must fall unless we, their descen- 
dants, supply their places with other pillars, hewn from the solid 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 15 

quarry of sober reason. Passion has helped us, but can do so no 
more. It "will in future be our enemy. Reason — cold, calculating, 
unimpassioned reason — must furnish all the materials for our future 
support and defense. Let those materials be molded into general 
intelligence, sound moralit}', and, in particular, a reverence for the 
Constitution and laws ; and that we improved to the last, that we 
remained fi'ee to the last, that we revered his name to the last, that 
during his long sleep we permitted no hostile foot to pass over or 
desecrate his resting-place, shall be that which to learn the last 
trump shall awaken our Washington. 

Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of 
its basis ; and as trulv as has been said of the only greater institu- 
tion, " the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 



March 3, 1837. — Protest in the Illinois Legislature on the 
Subject of Slavery. 

March 3, 1837. 

The following protest was presented to the House, which was 
read and ordered to be spread on the joui-nals, to wit: 

Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed both 
branches of the General Assembly at its present session, the undersigned 
hereby protest against the passage of the same. 

They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice 
and bad poUcy, but that the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends 
rather to increase than abate its evils. 

They beUeve that the Congress of the United States has no power under 
the Constitution to interfere with the institution of slavery in the different 
States. 

They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power, under 
the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, but that 
the power ought not to be exercised, unless at the request of the people 
of the District. 

The difference between these opinions and those contained in the said 
resolutions is their reason for entering this protest. 

Dan Stone, 
A. Lincoln, 
^Representatives from the County of Sangamon. 



May 7, 1837. — Letter to Miss Mary Owens. 

Springfield, May 7, 1837. 
Miss Mary S. Owens. 

Friend Mary : 1 have commenced two letters to send you before 
this, both of which displeased me before I got half done, and so I 
tore them up. The first I thought was not serious enough, and the 
second was on the other extreme. I shall send this, turn out as it 
may. 

This thing of living in Springfield is rather a dull business, after 
all ; at least it is so to me. I am quite as lonesome here as I ever 
was anywhere in my life. I have been spoken to by but one woman 



16 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

since I have been here, and should not have been by her if she 
could have avoided it. I 've never been to church yet, and probably 
shall not be soon. I stay away because I am conscious I should not 
know how to behave myself. 

I am often thinking of what we said about your coming to live at 
Springfield. I am afraid you would not be satisfied. There is a 
great deal of flourishing about in carriages here, which it would be 
your doom to see without sharing it. You would have to be poor, 
without the means of hiding your poverty. Do you believe you 
could bear that patiently? Whatever woman may cast her lot with 
mine, should any ever do so, it is my intention to do all in my 
power to make her happy and contented ; and there is nothing I 
can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the 
effort. I know I should be much happier with you than the way I 
am, provided I saw no signs of discontent in you. What you have 
said to me may have been in the way of jest, or I may have misun- 
derstood it. If so, then let it be forgotten ; if otherwise, I much 
wish you would think seriously before you decide. What I have 
said 1 will most positively abide by, provided you wish it. My 
opinion is that you had better not do it. You have not been accus- 
tomed to hardship, and it may be more severe than you now imagine. 
I know you are capable of thinking correctly on any subject, and if 
you deliberate maturely upon this before you decide, then I am will- 
ing to abide your decision. 

You must write me a good long letter after you get this. You 
have nothing else to do, and though it might not seem interesting 
to you after you had written it, it would be a good deal of com- 
pany to me in this "busy wilderness." Tell your sister I don't 
want to hear any more about selling out and moving. That gives 
me the "hypo" whenever I think of it. Yours, etc., 

Lincoln. 



August 16, 1837.— Letter to Miss Mary Owens. 

Springfield, August 16, 1837. 
Friend Mary : You will no doubt think it rather strange that I 
should write you a letter on the same day on which we parted, and 
I can only account for it by supposing that seeing you lately makes 
me think of you more than usual; while at our late meeting we 
had but few expressions of thoughts. You must know that I can- 
not see you or think of you with entire indifference ; and yet it may 
be that you are mistaken in regard to what my real feelings toward 
you are. If I knew you were not, I should not trouble you with 
this letter. Perhaps any other man would know enough without 
further information ; but I consider it my peculiar right to plead 
ignorance, and youi* bounden duty to allow the plea. I want in all 
eases to do right, and most particularly so in all cases with women. 
I want at this particular time, more than anything else, to do right 
with you; and if I knew it would be doing right, as I rather suspect 
it would, to let you alone, I would do it. And for the purpose of 



ADDBESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 17 

making the matter as plain as possible, I now say that you can noTV 
drop the subject, dismiss your thoughts (if you ever had any) from 
me forever, and leave this letter unanswered, without calling forth 
one accusing murmur from me. And I will even go further, and 
say that if it will add anything to your comfort or peace of 
mind to do so, it is my sincere wish that you should. Do not under- 
stand by this that I wish to cut your acquaintance. I mean no such 
thing. What I do wish is that our further acquaintance shall 
depend upon yourself. If such further acquaintance would contri- 
bute nothing to your happiness, I am sure it would not to mine. If 
you feel yourself in any degree bound to me, I am now willing to 
release you, pro\'ided you wish it 5 while, on the other hand, I am 
willing and even anxious to bind you faster, if I can be convinced 
that it will, in any considerable degree, add to your happiness. 
This, indeed, is the whole question with me. Nothing would make 
me more miserable than to believe you miserable — nothing more 
happy than to know you were so. 

In what I have now said, I think I cannot be misunderstood, and to 
make myself understood is the only object of this letter. 

If it suits you best to not answer this, farewell. A long life and a 
merry one attend you. But if you conclude to write back, speak as 
plainly as I do. There can be neither harm nor danger in saying to 
me anything you think, just in the manner you think it. 

My respects to your sister. Your friend, 

Lincoln. 



April 1, 1838.— Letter to Mrs. O. H. Browning. 

Springfield, April 1, 1838. 

Bear Madam : "Without apologizing for being egotistical, I shall 
make the history of so much of my life as has elapsed since I saw 
you the subject of this letter. And, by the way, I now discover 
that in order to give a full and intelligible account of the things I 
have done and suffered since I saw you, I shall necessarily have to 
relate some that happened before. 

It was, then, in the autumn of 1836 that a manied lady of my 
acquaintance, and who was a great friend of mine, being about to 
pay a visit to her father and other relatives residing in Kentucky, 
proposed to me that on her return she would bring a sister of hers 
with her on condition that I would engage to become her brother- 
in-law with all convenient despatch. I, of course, accepted the pro- 
posal, for you know I could not have done otherwise had I really 
been averse to it ; but privately, between you and me, I was most 
confoundedly well pleased with the project. I had seen the said 
sister some three years before, thought her intelligent and agi*ee- 
able, and saw no good objection to plodding life tbrongh hand in 
hand with her. Time passed on, the lady took her journey and in 
due time returned, .sister in company, sure enough. This astonished 
me a little, for it appeared to me that her coming so readily showed 
that she was a trifle too willing, but on reflection it occurred to me that 
Vol. I.— 2. 



18 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

she might have been prevailed on by her married sister to come, with- 
out anything concerning me ever having been mentioned to her, and so 
I concluded that if no other objection presented itself, I would con- 
sent to waive this. All this occurred to me on hearing of her arrival 
in the neighborhood — for, be it remembered, I had not yet seen her, 
except about three years previous, as above mentioned. In a few 
days we had an interview, and, although I had seen her before, she 
did not look as my imagination had pictured her. I knew she was 
over-size, but she now appeared a fair match for Falstaif. I knew 
she was called an " old maid," and I felt no doubt of the truth of at 
least half of tlie appellation, but now, when I beheld her, I could 
not for my life avoid thinking of my mother; and this, not from 
withered features, — for her skin was too full of fat to permit of its 
contracting into wrinkles, — but from her want of teeth, weather- 
beaten appearance in general, and from a kind of notion that ran in 
my head that nothing could have commenced at the size of infancy 
and reached her present bulk in less than thirty-five or forty years: 
and, in short, I was not at all pleased with her. But what could 1 
do ? I had told her sister that I would take her for better or for 
worse, and I made a point of honor and conscience in all things to 
stick to my word, especially if others had been induced to act on it, 
which in this case I had no doubt they had, for I was now fairly 
convinced that no other man on earth would have her, and hence 
the conclusion that they were bent on holding me to my bargain. 
" Well," thought I, '* I have said it, and, be the consequences what 
they may, it shall not be my fault if I fail to do it." At once I de- 
termined to consider her my wife, and this done, all my powers of 
discovery were put to work in search of perfections in her which 
might be fairly set off against her defects. I tried to imagine her 
handsome, which, but for her unfortunate corpulency, was actually 
true. Exclusive of this, no woman that I have ever seen has a finer 
face. I also tried to convince myself that the mind was much more 
to be valued than the person, and in this she was not inferior, as I 
could discover, to any with whom I had been acquainted. 

Shortly after this, without attempting to come to any positive 
understanding with her, I set out for Vandaha, when and where 
you first saw me. During my stay there I had letters from her 
which did not change my opinion of either her intellect or intention, 
but, on the contrary, confirmed it in both. 

All this while, although I was fi:xed '' firm as the surge-repelling 
rock " in my resolution, I found I was continually repenting the 
rashness which had led me to make it. Through life I have been in 
no bondage, either real or imaginary, from the thraldom of which I 
so much desired to be free. After my return home I saw nothing 
to change my opinion of her in any particular. She was the same, 
and so was I. I now spent my time in planning how I might get 
along in life after my contemplated change of circumstances should 
have taken place, and how I might procrastinate the evil day for a 
time, which I really dreaded as much, perhaps more, than an Irish- 
man does the halter. 

After all my sufferings upon this deeply interesting subject, here 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 19 

I am, wholly, unexpectedly, completely out of the "scrape," and I 
now want to know if you can guess how I got out of it — out, clear, 
in every sense of the term — no violation of word, honor, or con- 
science. I don't believe you can guess, and so I might as well tell 
you at once. As the lawyer says, it was done in the manner follow- 
ing, to wit: After I had delayed the matter as long as I thought I 
could in honor do (which, by the way, had brought me round into 
the last fall), I concluded I might as well bring it to a consummation 
without further dela}-, and so I mustered my resolution and made 
the proposal to her direct ; but, shocking to relate, she answered, No. 
At first I supposed she did it through an affectation of modesty, 
which I thought but ill became her under the peculiar circumstances 
of her case, but on my renewal of the charge I found she repelled 
it with greater firmness than before. I tried it again and again, but 
with the same success, or rather with the same want of success. 

I finally was forced to give it up, at which I very unexpectedly 
found myself mortified almost beyond endurance. I was mortified, 
it seemed to me, in a hundred different ways. My vanity was deeply 
wounded by the reflection that I had so long been too stupid to dis- 
cover her intentions, and at the same time never doubting that I 
understood them perfectly; and also that she, whom I had taught 
myself to believe nobody else would have, had actually rejected me 
with all my fancied greatness. And, to cap the whole, I then for 
the first time began to suspect that I was really a little in love with 
her. But let it all go ! I '11 try and outlive it. Others have been 
made fools of by the girls, but this can never with truth be said of 
me. I most emphatically, in this instance, made a fool of myself. 
I have now come to the conclusion never again to think of marry- 
ing, and for this reason — I can never be satisfied with any one who 
would be blockhead enough to have me. 

When you receive this, write me a long yarn about something to 
amuse me. Give my respects to Mr. Browning. 

Your sincere friend, 

Mrs. O. H. Browning. A. Lincoln. 

January 17, 1839.— Remarks in the Illinois Legislature. 

In the House of Representatives, January 17, 1839. 
j\Ir. Lincoln, from Committee on Finance, to which the subject was 
referred, made a report on the subject of purchasing of the United 
States all the unsold lands lying within the limits of the State of 
Illinois, accompanied by resolutions that this State propose to pur- 
chase all unsold lands at twenty-five cents per acre, and pledging the 
faith of the State to carry the proposal into effect if the government 
accept the same within two years. 

Mr. Lincoln thought the resolutions ought to be seriously consid- 
ered. In reply to the gentleman from Adams, he said that it was not 
to enrich the State. The price of the lauds may be raised, it was 
thought by some ; by others, that it would be reduced. The conclu- 



20 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

sion in his mind was tbat the representatives in this legislature 
from the country in which the lands lie would be opposed to raising 
the price, because it would operate against the settlement of the 
lands. He referred to the lauds in the military tract. They had 
fallen into the hands of large speculators in consequence of the low 
price. He was opposed to a low price of land. He thought it was 
adverse to the interests of the poor settler, because speculators buy 
them up. He was opposed to a reduction of the price of public 
lands. 

Mr. Lincoln referred to some official documents emanating from 
Indiana, and compared the progressive population of the two States. 
Illinois had gained upon that State under the public laud system as 
it is. His conclusion was that ten years from this time Illinois 
would have no more public land unsold than Indiana now has. He 
referred also to Oliio. That State had sold nearly all her public 
lands. She was but twenty years ahead of us, and as our lands were 
equally salable — more so, as he maintained — we should have no 
more twenty years from now than she has at present. 

Mr. Lincoln referred to the canal lands, and supposed that the 
policy of the State would be different in regard to them, if the rep- 
resentatives from that section of country could themselves choose 
the policy ; but the representatives from other parts of the State had 
a veto upon it, and regulated the policy. He thought that if the 
State had aU the lands, the policy of the legislature would be more 
liberal to all sections. 

He referred to the policy of the General Government. He thought 
that if the national debt had not been paid, the expenses of the gov- 
ernment would not have doubled, as they had done since that debt 
was paid. 

May 11, 1839.— Letter to A. P. Field. 

Springfield, Illinois, May 11, 1839. 
A. P. Field, Esq. 

Dear Sir : At the late session an act passed both Houses of leg- 
islature for the benefit of the clerks of the Circuit Courts of Sanga- 
mon, Hamilton, and Fayette counties. I can see nothing of this 
act in tlie printed laws, one copy of which has reached us. I know 
it passed both Houses, but I am a little suspicious it has not been 
duly acted on by the Council of Revision. Will you please learn 
and write us what condition it is in, and also send us a copy of the 
act ? Mr. Butler will pay the charge on sight. Your friend, 

A. Lincoln. 



November 14, 1839.— Letter to John T. Stuart. 

Springfield, November 14, 1839. 
Bear Sfuarf : I have been to the secretary's office within the last 
hour, and find things precisely as you left them. No new arrivals 
of returns on either side. Douglas has not been here since you left. 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 21 

A report is in circulation here now that he has abandoned the idea 
of going to Washington, though the report does not come in a very- 
authentic form, so far as I can learn. Though, by the way, speak- 
ing of authenticity, you know that if we had heard Douglas say that 
he had abandoned' the contest, it would not be very authentic. 
There is no news here. Noah, I still think, will be elected very eas- 
ily. I am afraid of our race for representative. Dr. Knapp has 
become a candidate, and I fear the few votes he will get will be 
taken from us. Also some one has been tampering with old Es- 
quire Wicoff, and induced him to send in his name to be announced 
as a candidate. Francis refused to announce him without seeing 
him, and now I suppose there is to be a fuss about it. I have been 
so busy that I have not seen Mrs. Stuart since you left, though I 
understand she wrote you by to-day's mail, which will inform you 
more about her than I could. The very moment a Speaker is 
elected, write me who he is. Your friend as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 



December[20?], 1839.— Speech at a Political Discussion 

IN THE Hall of the House of Representatives at 

Springfield, Illinois. 

[From a pamphlet copy in possession of Hon. T. J. Henderson, lUinois.)' 

Fellow-citizens : It is peculiarly embarrassing to me to attempt 
a continuance of the discussion, on this evening, which has been 
conducted in this hall on several preceding ones. It is so because 
on each of those evenings there was a much fuller attendance than 
now, without any reason for its being so, except the greater interest 
the community feel in the speakers who addressed them then than 
they do in him who is to do so now. I am, indeed, apprehensive 
that the few who have attended have done so more to spare me 
mortification than in the hope of being interested in anything I 
may be able to say. This circumstance casts a damp upon my 
spirits, wliich I am' sure I shall be unable to overcome during the 
evening. But enough of preface. 

The subject heretofore and now to be discussed is the subtrea- 
sury scheme of the present administration, as a means of collecting, 
safe-keeping, transferring, and disbursing the revenues of the 
nation, as contrasted with a national bank for the same purposes. 
Mr. Douglas has said that we (the Whigs) have not dared to meet 
them (the Locos) in argument on this question. I protest against 
this assertion. I assert that we have again and again, during this 
discussion, urged facts and arguments against the subtreasury 
which they have neither dared to deny nor attempted to answer. 
But lest some may be led to believe that we really wish to avoid 
the question, I now propose, in my humble way, to urge those argu- 
ments again; at the same time begging the audience to mark well 
the positions I shall take and the proof I shall offer to sustain them, 
and that they will not again permit Mr. Douglas or his friends to es- 



22 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

cape the force of them by a round and groundless assertion that we 
" dare not meet them in argument." 

Of the subtreasury, then, as contrasted with a national bank for 
the before enumerated purposes, I lay down the following proposi- 
tions, to wit : (1) It will injuriously affect the community by its 
operation on the circulating medium. (2) It wiU be a more expen- 
sive fiscal agent. (3) It will be a less secure depository of the public 
money. To show the truth of the first proposition, let us take a 
short review of our condition under the operation of a national bank. 
It was the depository of the public revenues. Between the collec- 
tion of those revenues and the disbursement of them b}' the govern- 
ment, the bank was permitted to and did actually loan them out to 
individuals, and hence the large amount of money annually collected 
for revenue purposes, which by any other plan would have been idle 
a great portion of the time, was kept almost constantly in circula- 
tion. Any person who will reflect that money is only valuable while 
in circulation, will readily perceive that any device which will keep 
the government revenues in constant circulation, instead of being 
locked up in idleness, is no inconsiderable advantage. By the sub- 
treasury the revenue is to be collected and kept in iron boxes until 
the government wants it for disbursement ; thus robbing the people 
of the use of it, while the government does not itself need it, and 
while the money is performing no nobler office than that of rusting 
in iron boxes. The natural effect of this change of policy, every 
one will see, is to reduce the quantity of money in circulation. But, 
again, by the subtreasury scheme the revenue is to be collected in 
specie. I anticipate that this will be disputed. I expect to hear it 
said that it is not the policy of the administration to collect the rev- 
enue in specie. If it shall, I reply that Mr. Van Buren, in his mes- 
sage recommending the subtreasury, expended nearly a column of 
that document in an attempt to persuade Congress to provide for 
the collection of the revenue in specie exclusively ; and he concludes 
with these words: ''It may be safely assumed that no motive of 
convenience to the citizen requires the reception of bank paper." In 
addition to this, Mr. Silas Wright, senator from New- York, and the 
political, personal, and confidential friend of Mr. Van Buren, drafted 
and introduced into the Senate the first subtreasury bill, and that 
bill provided for ultimately collecting the revenue in specie. It is 
true, I know, that that clause was stricken from the bill, but it was 
done by the votes of the Whigs, aided by a portion only of the Van 
Buren senators. No subtreasury bill has yet become a law, though 
two or three have been considered by Congress, some with and some 
without the specie clause ; so that 1 admit there is room for quib- 
bling upon the question of whether the administration favor the 
exclusive specie doctrine or not ; but I take it that the fact that the 
President at first urged the specie doctrine, and that under his 
recommendation the first bill introduced embraced it, wan*ants us in 
charging it as the policy of the party until their head as publicly 
recants it as he at first espoused it. I repeat, then, that by the sub- 
treasury the revenue is to be collected in specie. Now mark what 
the effect of this must be. By all estimates ever made there are but 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 23 

between sixty and eighty millions of specie in the United States. 
The expenditures of the Grovernment for the year 1838 — the last for 
which we have had the report — were forty millions. Thus it is seen 
that if the whole revenue be collected in specie, it will take more 
than half of all the specie iu the nation to do it. By this means 
more than half of all the specie belonging to the fifteen millions of 
souls who compose the whole population of the country is thrown 
into the hands of the public-office holders, and other public creditors, 
composing iu number perhaps not more than one quarter of a mil- 
lion, leaving the other fourteen millions and three quarters to get 
along as they best can, with less than one half of the specie of the 
country, and whatever rags and shinplasters they may be able to 
put, and keep, in circulation. By this means, every office-holder and 
other public creditor may, and most likely will, set up shaver ; and 
a most glorious harvest will the specie-men have of it, — each specie- 
man, upon a fair division, having to his share the fleecing of about 
fifty-nine rag-men.^ In all candor let me ask, was such a system 
for benefiting the few at the expense of the many ever before devised f 
And was the sacred name of Democracy ever before made to indorse 
such an enormity against the rights of the people ? 

I have already said that the subtreasury will reduce the quantity 
of money in circulation. This position is strengthened by the rec- 
ollection that the revenue is to be collected in specie, so that the 
mere amount of revenue is not all that is withdrawn, but the 
amount of paper circulation that the forty millions would serve as 

1 On Januaiy 4, 1839, the Senate of the bly commands a premium of one to three 
United States passed the following resolu- per centum. Every year one senator and 
tion, to wit : ten citizens are appointed to transact the 
"Resolved, That the Secretary of the whole of the financial concern, both as to 
Treasury be directed to communicate to the receipt and disbursement of the funds, 
Senate any information he may recently which is always in cash, and is every day 
have received in respect to the mode of col- deposited in the bank, to the credit of the 
lecting, keeping, and disbursing pubhc chancery ; and. on being paid out, the citi- 
moneys in foreign countries." zen to whose department the payment be- 
Under this resolution, the Secretarj- com- longs must appear personally with the 
municated to the Senate a letter, the fol- check or order, stating the amount and to 
lowing extract from which clearly shows whom to be paid. The person receiving 
that the collection of the revenue in specie very seldom keeps the money, preferring 
will estabUsh a sound currency for the of- to dispose of it to a money-changer at a 
lice-holders, and a depreciated one for the premium, and taking other coin at a dis- 
people ; and that the office-holders and coimt. of which there is a great variety and 
other public creditors will turn shavers a large amount constantly in circulation, 
upon all the rest of the community. Here and on which in his daily payment he loses 
is the extract from the letter, being all of nothing; and those who have payments 
It that relates to the question: to make to the government apply to the 

money-changers again for Hamburg cur- 

" Hague October 12 1838. rency, which keeps it in constant motion. 

"' ' and I believe it freqiiently occurs that the 

" The financial system of Hamburg is, as bags, which are sealed and labeled with 

far as is known, very simple, as may be the amount, are returned again to the bank 

supposed from so small a territory. 'The without being opened, 
whole amount of Hamburg coined money " With great respect, your obedient ser- 

is about four and a half millions of marks vant, John Cuthbert. 

current, or one million two hundred and " To the Hon. Levi Woodbury, 
eighty-two thousand five hundred dollars; "Secretary of the Treasury, 

and, except under very extraordinary cir- Washington, D. C." 

cumstances. not more than one half that 

amountis in circulation, and all duties, taxes. This letter is found in Senate document, 

and excise must be paid in Hamlnirg cur- p, 113 of the session of 1S38-9. 
rency. The consequence is that it invaria- 



24 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

a basis to is withdrawu, which would be iu a sound state at least 
one hundred millions. "When one hundred millions, or more, of 
the circulation we now have shall be withdrawn, who can contem- 
plate without terror the distress, ruin, bankruptcy, and beggary 
that must follow. The man Avho has purchased any article — say a 
jborse — on credit, at one hundred dollars, when there are two hun- 
dred millions circulating in the country, if the quantity be reduced 
to one hundred millions by the arrival of pay-day, will find the 
horse but sufficient to pay half the debt ; and the other half must 
either be paid out of his other means, and thereby become a clear 
loss to him, or go unpaid, and thereby become a clear loss to his 
creditor. What I have here said of a single case of the purchase 
of a horse will hold good in every case of a debt existing at the 
time a reduction in the quantity of money occurs, by whomsoever, 
and for whatsoever, it may have been contracted. It may be said 
that what the debtor loses the creditor gains by this operation ; but 
on examination this will be found true only to a very limited ex- 
tent. It is more generally true that all lose by it — the creditor by 
losing more of his debts than he ^ains by the increased value of 
those he collects ; the debtor by either parting with more of his 

Eroperty to pay his debts than he received in contracting them, or 
y entirely breaking up his business, and thereby being thrown 
upon the world in idleness. 

The general distress thus created will, to be sure, be temporary, 
because whatever change may occur in the quantity of money in any 
community, time will adjust the derangement produced ; but while 
that adjustment is progressing, all suffer more or less, and very 
many lose everything that renders life desirable. Why, then, shall 
we suffer a severe difficulty, even though it be but temporary, unless 
we receive some equivalent for it ? 

What I have been saying as to the effect produced by a reduction 
of the quantity of money relates to the whole country. I now pro- 
pose to show that it would produce a peculiar and permanent hard- 
ship upon the citizens of those States and Territories in which the 
public lands lie. The land-offices in those States and Territories, as 
all know, form the great gulf by which all, or nearly all, the money 
in them is swallowed up. When the quantity of money shall be re- 
duced, and consequently everything under individual control brought 
down in proportion, the price of those lands, being fixed by law, will 
remain as now. Of necessity it will follow that the produce or labor 
that now raises money sufficient to purchase eighty acres will then 
raise but sufficient to purchase forty, or perhaps not that much ; and 
this difficulty and hardship will last as long, in some degree, as any 
portion of these lands shall remain undisposed of. Knowing, as I 
well do, the difficulty that poor people now encounter in procuring 
homes, I hesitate not to say that when the price of the public lands 
shall be doubled or trebled, or, which is the same thing, produce and 
labor cut down to one half or one third of their present prices, it will 
be little less than impossible for them to procure those homes at all. 
In answer to what I have said as to the effect the subtreasury 
would have upon the currency, it is often urged that the money col- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 25 

lected for revenue purposes will not lie idle in the vaults of the 
treasury; and, farther, that a national bank produces greater de- 
rangement in the currency, by a system of contractions and expan- 
sions, than the subtreasury would produce in any way. In reply, 1 
need only show that experience proves the contrary of both these 
propositions. It is an undisputed fact that the late Bank of the 
United States paid the government $75,000 annually for the privi- 
lege of using the public money between the times of its collection 
and disbursement. Can any man suppose that the bank would have 
paid this sum annually for twenty years, and then offered to renew 
its obligations to do so, if in reality there was no time intervening 
between the collection and disbursement of the revenue, and con- 
sequently no privilege of using the money extended to it ? Again, 
as to the contractions and expansions of a national bank, I need only 
point to the period intervening between the time that the late 
bank got into successful operation and that at which the govern- 
ment commenced war upon it, to show that during that period no 
such contractions or expansions took place. If, before or after that 
period, derangement occurred in the currency, it proves nothing. 
The bank could not be expected to regulate the currency, either 
before it got into successful operation, or after it was crippled and 
thrown into death convulsions, by the removal of the deposits from 
it, and other hostile measui'es of the government against it. We 
do not pretend that a national bank can establish and maintain a 
sound and uniform state of currency in the country, in spite of the 
National Government; but we do say that it has established and 
maintained such a currency, and can do so again, by the aid of that 
government ; and we further say that no duty is more imperative on 
that government than the duty it owes the people of furnishing 
them a sound and uniform currency. 

I now leave the proposition as to the effect of the subtreasury 
upon the currency of the country, and pass to that relative to the 
additional expense which must be incurred by it over that incurred 
by a national bank as a fiscal agent of the government. By the late 
national bank we had the public revenue received, safely kept, trans- 
ferred, and disbursed, not only without expense, but we actually 
received of the bank $75,000 annually for its privileges while ren- 
dering us those services. By the subtreasury, according to the esti- 
mate of the Secretary of the Treasury, who is the warm advocate of 
the system (and which estimate is the lowest made by any one), the 
same services are to cost $60,000. Mr. Rives, who, to say the least, 
is equally talented and honest, estimates that these services, under 
the subtreasury system, cannot cost less than $600,000. For the sake 
of liberality, let us suppose that the estimates of the secretary and 
Mr. Rives are the two extremes, and that their mean is about the 
true estimate, and we shall then find that when to that sum is added 
the $75,000 which the bank paid us, the difference between the 
two systems, in favor of the bank and against the subtreasury, is 
$405,000 a year. This sum, though small when compared to* the 
many millions annually expended by the General Government, is, 
when viewed by itself, very large ; and much too large, when viewed 



26 ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

in any light, to be thrown away once a year for nothing. It is suf- 
ficient to pay the pensions of more than four thousand Revolution- 
ary soldiers, or to purchase a forty-acre tract of government land 
for each one of more than eight thousand poor families. 

To the argument against the subtreasury, on the score of addi- 
tional expense, its friends, so far as I know, attempt no answer. 
They choose, so fai* as I can learn, to treat the throwing away of 
$405,000 once a year as a matter entirely too small to merit their 
Democratic notice. 

I now come to the proposition that it would be less secure than a 
national bank as a depository of the public money. The experience 
of the past, I think, proves the truth of this. And here, inasmuch 
as I rely chiefly upon experience to establish it, let me ask how is it 
that we know anything — that any event will occur, that any combi- 
nation of circumstances will produce a certain result — except by the 
analogies of past experience? What has once happened will invari- 
ably happen again when the same circumstances which combined to 
produce it shall again combine in the same way. We all feel that 
we know that a blast of wind would extinguish the flame of the 
candle that stands by me. How do we know it? We have never 
seen this flame thus extinguished. We know it because we have 
seen through all our lives that a blast of wind extinguishes the 
flame of a candle whenever it is thrown fully upon it. Again, we all 
feel to know that we have to die. How? We have never died yet. 
We know it because we know, or at least think we know, that of aU 
the beings, just like ourselves, who have been coming into the world 
for six thousand years, not one is now living who was here two hun- 
dred years ago. I repeat, then, that we know nothing of what will 
happen in future, but by the analogy of experience, and that the fair 
analogy of past experience fully proves that the subtreasury would 
be a less safe depository of the public money than a national bank. 
Examine it. By the subtreasury scheme the public money is to be 
kept, between the times of its collection and disbursement, by trea- 
surers of the mint, custom-house officers, land officers, and some new 
officers to be appointed in the same way that those first enumerated 
are. Has a year passed, since the organization of the government, 
that numerous defalcations have not occurred among this class of 
officers? Look at Swartwout with his $1,200,000, Price with his 
$75,000, Harris with his $109,000, Hawkins with his $100,000, Linn 
with his $55,000, together with some twenty-five hundred lesser 
lights. Place the public money again in these same hands, and will 
it not again go the same way ? Most assuredly it will. But turn to 
the history of the national banks in this country, and we shall there 
see that those banks performed the fiscal operations of the govern- 
ment through a period of forty years, received, safely kept, trans- 
ferred, disbursed an aggregate of nearly five hundred millions of 
dollars; and that, in all this time, and with all that money, not one 
dollar, nor one cent, did the government lose by them. Place the 
public money again in a similar depository, and will it not again be 
safe. But, conclusive as the experience of fifty years is that indi- 
viduals are unsafe depositories of the public money, and of forty 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 27 

years that national banks are safe depositories, we are not left to 
rely solely upon that experience for the truth of those propositions. 
If experience were silent upon the subject, conclusive reasons could 
be shown for the truth of them. 

It is often urged that to say the public money will be more secure 
in a national bank than in the hands of individuals, as proposed in 
the subtreasury, is to say that bank directors and bank officers are 
more honest than sworn officers of the government. Not so. We 
insist on no such thing. We say that public officers, selected with 
reference to their capacity and honesty (which, by the way, we deny 
is the practice in these days), stand an equal chance, precisely, of 
being capable and honest with bank officers selected by the same 
rule. We further say that with however much care selections may 
be made, there will be some unfaithful and dishonest in both classes. 
The experience of the whole world, in all bygone times, proves this 
true. The Saviour of the world chose twelve disciples, and even one 
of that small number, selected by superhuman wisdom, turned out 
a traitor and a devil. And it may not be improper here to add that 
Judas carried the bag — was the subtreasurer of the Saviour and his 
disciples. We, then, do not say — nor need we say to maintain our 
proposition — that bank officers are more honest than government 
officers selected by the same rule. What we do say is that the inter- 
est of the subtreasurer is against his duty, while the interest of tlie 
bank is on the side of its duty. Take instances: A subtreasurer 
has in his hands one hundred thousand dollars of public money; 
his duty says, " You ought to pay this money over," but his interest 
says, " You ought to run away with this sum, and be a nabob the 
balance of your life." And who that knows anything of human 
nature doubts that in many instances interest will prevail over duty, 
and that the subtreasurer will prefer opulent knavery' in a foreign 
land to honest poverty at home? But how different is it with a 
bank. Besides the government money deposited with it, it is doing 
business upon a large capital of its own. If it proves faithful to the 
government, it continues its business ; if unfaithful, it forfeits its 
charter, breaks up its business, and thereby loses more than all it 
can make by seizing upon the government funds in its possession. 
Its interest, therefore, is on the side of its duty — is to be faithful to 
the government, and consequently even the dishonest amongst its 
managers have no temptation to be faithless to it. Even if robber- 
ies happen in the bank, the losses are borne by the bank, and the 
government loses nothing. It is for this reason, then, that we say 
a bank is the more secure. It is because of that admirable feature 
i!i the bank system which places the interest and the duty of the 
depository both on one side ; whereas that feature can never enter 
into the subtreasury system. By the latter the interest of the indi- 
viduals keeping the public money will wage an eternal war with 
their duty, and in very many instances must be \actorious. In an- 
swer to the argument drawn from the fact that indi^ddual depos- 
itories of public money have always proved unsafe, it is urged that, 
even if we had a national bank, the money has to pass through the 
same individual hands that it wiU under the subtreasurv. This is 



28 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ouly partially true in fact, and wholly f allacions in argument. It is 
only partially true in fact, because by the subtreasury bill four re- 
ceivers-general are to be appointed by the President and Senate. 
These are new officers, and consequently it cannot be true that the 
money, or any portion of it, has heretofore passed through their 
hands. These four new officers are to be located at New York, Bos- 
ton, Charleston, and St. Louis, and consequently are to be deposi- 
tories of all the money collected at or near those points; so that 
more than three fourths of the public money wOl fall into the keep- 
ing of these four new officers, who did not exist as officers under 
the national-bank system. It is only partially true, then, that the 
money passes through the same hands, under a national bank, as it 
would do under the subtreasury. It is true that under either system 
individuals must be emploj^ed as collectors of the customs, receivers 
at the land-offices, etc., but the difference is that under the bank 
system the receivers of all sorts receive the money and pay it over 
to the bank once a week when the collections are large, and once a 
month when they are small; whereas by the subtreasury^ system in- 
dividuals are not only to collect the money, but they are to keep it 
also, or pay it over to other individuals equally unsafe as them- 
selves, to be by them kept until it is wanted for disbursement. It 
is during the time that it is thus lying idle in their hands that op- 
portunity is afforded and temptation held out to them to embezzle 
and escape with it. By the bank system each collector or receiver 
is to deposit in bank all the money in his hands at the end of each 
month at most, and to send the bank certificates of deposit to the 
Secretary of the Treasury. Whenever that certificate of deposit fails 
to arrive at the proper time, the secretary knows that the officer thus 
failing is acting the knave ; and, if he is himself disposed to do his 
duty, he has him immediately removed from office, and thereby cuts 
him off from the possibility of embezzling but little more than the 
receipts of a single month. But by the subtreasury system the 
money is to lie month after month in the hands of individuals ; 
larger amounts are to accumulate in the hands of the receivers-gen- 
eral and some others, by perhaps ten to one, than ever accumulated 
in the hands of individuals before ; yet during all this time, in rela- 
tion to this great stake, the Secretary of the Treasury can compara- 
tively know nothing. Reports, to be sure, he will have; but reports 
are often false, and always false when made by a knave to cloak; his 
knavery. Long experience has shown that nothing short of an ac- 
tual demand of the money wiU expose an adroit peculator. Ask him 
for reports, and he will give them to your heart's content; send 
agents to examine and count the money in his hands, and he will 
borrow of a friend, merely to be counted and then returned, a suffi- 
cient sum to make the sum square. Try what you will, it will all 
fail till you demand the money ; then, and not till then, the truth 
will come. 

The sum of the whole matter I take to be this : Under the bank 
system, while sums of money, by the law, were pennitted to lie in 
the hands of individuals for very short periods only, many and very 
large defalcations occurred by those individuals. Under the sub- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 29 

treasury system niucli larger sums are to lie in the hands of indi- 
viduals for much longer periods, thereby multiplying temptation in 
proportion as the sums are larger, and multiplying opportunity in 
proportion as the periods are longer to and for those individuals to 
embezzle and escape with the public treasure ; and therefore, just 
in the proportion that the temptation and the opportunity are greater 
under the subtreasury than the bank sj^stera, will the peculations 
and defalcations be greater under the former than the}'' have been 
under the latter. The truth of this, independent of actual experi- 
ence, is but little less than self-evident. I therefore leave it. 

But it is said, and truly too, that there is to be a penitentiary 
department to the subtreasury. This, the advocates of the system 
will have it, will be a " king cure-all." Before I go farther, may I 
not ask if the penitentiary department is not itself an admission 
that they expect the public money to be stolen? Why build the 
cage if they expect to catch no birds ? But as to the question how 
effectual the penitentiary will be in preventing defalcations. How 
effectual have penitentiaries heretofore been in prev^enting the 
crimes they were established to suppress ? Has not confinement in 
them long been the legal penalty of larceny, forgery, robbery, and 
many other crimes, in almost all the States f And yet are not those 
crimes committed weekly, daily, — nay, and even hourly, — in every 
one of those States? Again, the gallows has long been the penalty 
of murder, and yet we scarcely open a newspaper that does not 
relate a new case of that crime. If, then, the penitentiary has ever here- 
tofore failed to prevent larceny, forgery, and robbery, and the gal- 
lows and halter have Kkewise failed to prevent murder, by what 
process of reasoning, I ask, is it that we are to conclude the peni- 
tentiary will hereafter prevent the stealing of the public money? 
But our opponents seem to think they answer the charge that the 
money will be stolen fully if they can show that they will bring 
the offenders to punishment. Not so. Will the punishment of the 
thief bring back the stolen money? No more so than the hanging 
of a murderer restores his victim to life. What is the object desired ? 
Certainly not the greatest number of thieves we can catch, but that 
the money may not be stolen. If, then, any plan can be devised for 
depositing the public treasure where it will never be stolen, never 
embezzled, is not that the plan to be adopted? Turn, then, to a 
national bank, and you have that plan, fully and completely success- 
ful, as tested by the experience of forty years. 

I have now done with the three propositions that the subtrea- 
sury would injuriously affect the currency, and would be more ex- 
pensive and less secure as a depository of the public money than 
a national bank. How far I have succeeded in estal)lishing their 
truth, is for others to judge. Omitting, for want of time, what I 
had intended to say as to the effect of the subtreasury to bring the 
public money under the more immediate control of the President 
than it has ever heretofore been, I now ask the audience, when Mr. 
Calhoun shall answer me, to hold him to the questions. Permit him 
not to escape them. Require him either to show that the subtreasury 
would not injuriously affect the currency, or that we should in some 



30 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

way receive au equivalent for that injurious effect. Require him 
either to show that the subtreasury would not be more expensive as 
a fiscal agent than a bank, or that we should in some way be com- 
pensated for that additional expense. And particularly require him 
to show that the public money would be as secure in the subtrea- 
sury as in a national bank, or that the additional insecurity would 
be overbalanced by some good result of the proposed change. 

No one of them, in my humble judgment, will he be able to do; 
and I venture the prediction, and ask that it may be especially 
noted, that he will not attempt to answer the proposition that the 
subtreasury would be more expensive than a national bank as a 
fiscal agent of the government. 

As a sweeping objection to a national bank, and consequently au 
argument in favor of the subtreasury as a substitute for it, it often 
has been urged, and doubtless will be again, that such a bank is un- 
constitutional. We have often heretofore shown, and therefore 
need not in detail do so again, that a majority of the Revolutionary 
patriarchs, who ever acted officially upon the question, commencing 
with General "Washington, and embracing General Jackson, the 
larger number of the signers of the Declaration, and of the fram- 
ers of the Constitution, who were in the Congress of 1791, have 
decided upon their oaths that such a bank is constitutional. We 
have also shown that the votes of Congress have more often been in 
favor of than against its constitutionality. In addition to all this, 
we have shown that the Supreme Court — that tribunal which the 
Constitution has itself established to decide constitutional ques- 
tions — has solemnly decided that such a bank is constitutional. 
Protesting that these authorities ought to settle the question, — 
ought to be conclusive, — I will not urge them further now. I now 
propose to take a view of the question which I have not known to 
be taken by any one before. It is that whatever objection ever has 
or ever can be made to the constitutionality of a bank, will apply 
with equal force, in its whole length, breadth, and proportions, to the 
subtreasury. Our opponents say there is no express authority in 
the Constitution to establish a bank, and therefore, a bank is uncon- 
stitutional ; but we with equal truth may say there is no express 
authority in the Constitution to establish a subtreasur}^, and there- 
fore a subtreasury is unconstitutional. Who, then, has the advan- 
tage of this " express authority " argument ? Does it not cut equally 
both ways ? Does it not wound them as deeply and as deadly as it 
does usf Our position is that both are constitutional. The Consti- 
tution enumerates expressly several powers which Congress may 
exercise, superadded to which is a general authority " to make all 
laws necessary and proper" for carrying into effect all the powers 
vested by the Constitution in the Government of tlie United States. 
One of the express powers given Congress is " to lay and collect 
taxes, duties, imports, and excises; to pay the debts and pro- 
vide for the common defense and general welfare of the United 
States." Now, Congress is expressly authorized to make all laws 
necessary and proper for carrying this power into execution. To 
carry it into execution, it is indispensably necessary to collect, safely 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 31 

keep, transfer, and disburse a revenue. To do this, a bank is " ne- 
cessar}'' and proper." But, say our opponents, to authorize the mak- 
ing of a bank, the necessity must be so great that the power just 
recited would be nugatory without it; and that that necessity is 
expressly negatived by the fact that they have got along ten whole 
years without such a bank. Immediately we turn on them., and say 
that that sort of necessity for a subtreasury does not exist, because 
we have got along forty whole years without one. And this time, 
it may be observed that we are not merely equal with them in the 
argument, but we beat them forty to ten, or, which is the same 
thing, four to one. On examination, it will be found that the ab- 
surd rule which prescribes that before we can constitutionally adopt a 
national bank as a fiscal agent, we must show an indispensable necessity 
for it, will exclude every sort of fiscal agent that the mind of man can 
conceive. A bank is not indispensable, because we can take the sub- 
treasury ; the subtreasury is not indispensable, because we can take the 
bank. The rule is too absurd to need further comment. Upon the 
phrase "necessary and proper" in the Constitution, it seems to me 
more reasonable to say that some fiscal agent is indispensably neces- 
sary; but inasmuch as no particular sort of agent is thus indis- 
pensable, because some other sort might be adopted, we are left to 
choose that sort of agent which may be most "proper" on grounds 
of expediency. But it is said the Constitution gives no power to 
Congress to pass acts of incorporation. Indeed ! What is the pass- 
ing an act of incorporation but the making of a law? Is any one 
wise enough to tell ? The Constitution expressly gives Congress 
power " to pass all laws necessary and proper," etc. If, then, the 
passing of a bank charter be the " making a law necessary and 
proper," is it not clearly within the constitutional power of Congress 
to do so ? 

I now leave the bank and the subtreasury to try to answer, in a 
brief way, some of the arguments which on previous evenings here 
have been urged by Messrs. Lamborn and Douglas. Mr. Lamborn 
admits that " errors," as he charitably calls them, have occurred 
under the present and late administrations; but he insists that as 
great " errors " have occurred under all administrations. This we 
respectfully deny. We admit that errors may have occurred under 
all administrations ; but we insist that there is no parallel between 
them and those of the two last. If they can show that their errors 
are no greater in number and magnitude than those of former times, 
we call off the dogs. But they can do no such thing. To be brief, 
I will now attempt a contrast of the " errors " of the two latter with 
those of former administrations, in relation to the public expendi- 
tures only. What I am now about to say as to the expenditures will 
be, in all cases, exclusive of payments on the national debt. By an 
examination of authentic public documents, consisting of the regu- 
lar series of annual reports made by all the secretaries of the trea- 
sury from the establishment of the government down to the close 
of the year 1838, the following contrasts will be presented : 

(1) The last ten years under General Jackson and Mr. Van Buren 
cost more money than the first twenty-seven did {including the heavy 



32 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

expenses of the late British war) under Washington, Adams, Jeffer- 
son, and Madison. 

(2) The last year of J. Q. Adams's administration cost, in round 
numbers, thirteen millions, being about one dollar to each soul in the 
nation ; the last (1838) of Mr. Van Buren's cost forty millions, being 
about two dollars and fifty cents to each soul, and being larger than 
the expenditure of Mr. Adams in the proportion of five to two. 

(3) The highest annual expenditure during the late British war — 
being in 1814, and while we had in actual service rising 188,000 militia, 
together with the whole regular army, swelling the number to greatly 
over 200,000, and they to be clad, fed, and transported from point to 
point, with great rapidity and corresponding expense, and to be fur- 
nished with arms and ammunition, and they to be transported in 
like manner, and at like expense — was no more in round numbers 
than thirty millions ; whereas the annual expenditure of 1838, under 
Mr. Van Buren, and while we were at peace with every government 
in the world, was forty millions ; being over the highest year of the 
late and very expensive war in the proportion of four to three. 

(4) General Washington administered the government eight years 
for sixteen millions ; Mr. Van Buren administered it one year (1838) 
for forty millions ; so that Mr. Van Buren expended twice and a half 
as much in one year as General Washington did in eight, and being 
in the proportion of twenty to one; or in other words, had General 
Washington administered the government twenty years at the same 
average expense that he did for eight, he would have carried us 
through the whole twenty for no more money than Mr. Van 
Buren has expended in getting us through the single one of 1838. 
Other facts equally astounding might be presented from the same 
authentic document ; but I deem the foregoing abundantly sufficient 
to establish the proposition that there is no parallel between the 
" errors " of the present and late administrations and those of 
former times, and that Mr. Van Buren is wholly out of the line of 
all precedents. 

But Mr. Douglas, seeing that the enormous expenditure of 1838 
has no parallel in the olden times, comes in with a long list of 
excuses for it. This list of excuses I will rapidly examine, and show, 
as I think, that the few of them which are true prove nothing, and 
that the majority of them are wholly untrue in fact. He first says 
that the expenditures of that one year were made under the appro- 
priations of Congress — one branch of which was a Whig body. It 
is true that those expenditures were made under the appropriations 
of Congress; but it is untrue that either branch of Congress was a 
Whig body. The Senate had fallen into the hands of the adminis- 
tration more than a year before, as proven bj^ the passage of the 
Expunging Resolution ; and at the time those appropriations were 
made there were too few Whigs in that body to make a respectable 
straggle, in point of numbers, upon any question. This is notorious 
to all. The House of Representatives tliat voted those appropria- 
tions was the same that first assembled at the called session of Sep- 
tember, 1838. Although it refused to pass the Subtreasury Bill, a 
majority of its members were elected as friends of the administra- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 33 

tion, and proved their adherence to it by the election of a Van 
Buren speaker, and two Van Buren clerks. It is clear, then, that 
both branches of the Congress that passed those appropriations were 
in the hands of Mr. Van Buren's friends, so that the Whigs had no 
power to arrest them, as Mr. Douglas would insist. And is not the 
charge of extravagant expenditures equally well sustained, if shown 
to have been made by a Van Buren Congress, as if shown to have 
been made in any other way? A Van Buren Congress passed the 
bills, and Mr. Van Buren himself approved them, and consequently 
the party are wholly responsible for them. 

Mr. Douglas next says that a portion of the expenditures of that 
vear was made for the purchase of public lands from the Indians. 
Now it happens that no such purchase was made during that year. 
It is true that some money was paid that year in pursuance of In- 
dian treaties ; but no more, or rather not as much as had been paid 
on the same account in each of several preceding years. 

Next he says that the Florida war created many millions of this 
year's expenditure. This is true, and it is also true that during that 
and every other year that that war has existed, it has cost three or 
four times as much as it would have done under an honest and ju- 
dicious administration of the governmeut. The large sums foolishly, 
not to say corruptly, thrown away in that war constitute one of the 
just causes of complaint against the administration. Take a single 
mstance. The agents of the government in connection with that 
war needed a certain steamboat ; the owner proposed to sell it for 
ten thousand doUars ; the agents refused to give that sum, but hired 
the boat at one hundred dollars per day, and kept it at that hire till 
it amounted to ninety-two thousand dollars. This fact is not found 
in the public reports, but depends with me, on the verbal statement 
of an ofl&cer of the navy, who says he knows it to be true. That the 
administration ought to be credited for the reasonable expenses of 
the Florida war, we have never denied. Those reasonable charges, 
we say, could not exceed one or two millions a year. Deduct such 
a sum from the forty-million expenditure of 1838, and the remainder 
will stiU be without a parallel as an annual expenditure. 

Again, Mr. Douglas says that the removal of the Indians to the 
country west of the Mississippi created much of the expenditure of 
1838. I have examined the public documents in relation to this 
matter, and find that less was paid for the removal of Indians in 
that than in some former years. The whole sum expended on that ac- 
count in that year did not much exceed one quarter of a million. For 
this small sum, although we do not think the administration entitled 
to credit, because large sums have been expended in the same way in 
former years, we consent it may take one and make the most of it. 

Next, Mr. Douglas says that five millions of the expenditures of 
1838 consisted of the payment of the French indemnity money to 
its individual claimants. I have carefully examined the public doc- 
uments, and thereby find this statement to be wholly untrue. Of 
the forty millions of dollars expended in 1838, I am enabled to say 
positively that not one doUar consisted of payments on the French 
indemnities. So much for that excuse. 
Vol. 1—3. 



34 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Next comes the Post-office. He says that five millions were ex- 
pended during that year to sustain that department. By a like ex- 
amination of public documents, I find this also wholly untrue. Of 
the so often mentioned forty millions, not one dollar went to the 
Post-ofiice. I am glad, however, that the Post-office has been re- 
ferred to, because it warrants me in digressing a little to inquire 
how it is that that department of the government has become a 
charge upon the treasury, whereas under Mr. Adams and the presi- 
dents before him it not only, to use a homely phrase, cut its own 
fodder, but actually threw a surplus into the treasury. Although 
nothing of the forty millions was paid on that account in 1838, it is 
true that five millions are appropriated to be so expended in 1839 ; 
showing clearly that the department has become a charge upon the 
treasury. How has this happened ? I account for it in this way. 
The chief expense of the Post-office Department consists of the pay- 
ments of contractors for carrying the mail. Contracts for carrying 
the mails are by law let to the lowest bidders, after advertisement. 
This plan introduces competition, and insures the transportation of 
the mails at fair prices, so long as it is faithfully adhered to. It 
has ever been adhered to until Mr. Barry was made postmaster-gen- 
eral. When he came into office, he formed the purpose of throwing 
the mail contracts into the hands of his friends, to the exclusion of 
his opponents. To effect this, the plan of letting to the lowest bid- 
der must be evaded, and it must be done in this way : the favorite 
bid less by perhaps three or four hundred per cent, than the con- 
tract could be performed for, and consequently shutting out all hon- 
est competition, became the contractor. The Postmaster-General 
would immediately add some slight additional duty to the contract, 
and under the pretense of extra allowance for extra services run the 
contract to double, triple, and often quadruple what honest and fair 
bidders had proposed to take it at. In 1834 the finances of the de- 
partment had become so deranged that total concealment was no 
longer possible, and consequently a committee of the Senate were 
directed to make a thorough investigation of its affairs. Their re- 
port is found in the Senate Documents of 1833-4, Vol. V, Doc. 422 ; 
which documents may be seen at the secretary's office, and I pre- 
sume elsewhere in the State. The report shows numerous cases of 
similar import, of one of which I give the substance. The contract 
for carrying the mail upon a certain route had expired, and of 
course was to be let again. The old contractor offered to take it for 
$300 a year, the mail to be transported thereon three times a week, 
or for $G00 transported daily. One James Reeside bid $40 for three 
times a week, or $99 daily, and of course received the contract. On 
the examination of the committee, it was discovered that Reeside had 
received for the service on this route, which he had contracted to ren- 
der for less than $100, the enormous sum of $1999 1 This is but a sin- 
gle case. Many similar ones, covering some ten or twenty pages of 
a large volume, are given in that report. The department was 
found to be insolvent to the amount of half a million, and to have 
been so grossly mismanaged, or rather so corruptly managed, in al- 
most every particular, that the best friends of tne Postmaster-Gen- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 35 

eral made no defense of his administration of it. They admitted 
that he was wholly unqualified for that office ; but still he was re- 
tained in it by the President until he resigned it voluntarily about 
a year afterward. And when he resigned it, what do you think be- 
came of him? "Why, he sunk into obscurity and disgrace, to be 
sure^ you will say. No such thing. Well, then, what did become 
of him ? Why, the President immediately expressed his high dis- 
approbation of his almost unequaled incapacity and corruption by 
appointing him to a foreign mission, with a salary and outfit of 
$18,000 a year ! The party now attempt to throw Barry off, and 
to avoid the responsibility of his sins. Did not the President in- 
dorse those sins when, on the very heel of their commission, he ap- 
pointed their author to the very highest and most honorable office 
m his gift, and which is but a single step behind the very goal of 
American political ambition? 

I return to another of Mr. Douglas's excuses for the expenditures 
of 1838, at the same time announcing the pleasing intelligence that 
this is the last one. He says that ten milhons of that year's expen- 
diture was a contingent appropriation, to prosecute an anticipated 
war with Great Britain on the Maine boundary question. Few 
words will settle this. First, that the ten millions appropriated was 
not made till 1839, and consequently could not have been expended 
in 1838 ; second, although it was appropriated, it has never been ex- 
pended at all. Those who heard Mr. Douglas recollect that he in- 
dulged himself in a contemptuous expression of pity for me. '' Now 
he 's got me," thought I. But when he went on to say that five mil- 
lions of the expenditure of 1838 were payments of the French indem- 
nities, which I knew to be untrue ; that five millions had been for 
the Post-office, which I knew to be untrue; that ten millions had 
been for the Maine boundary war, which I not only knew to be un- 
true, but supremely ridiculous also; and when I saw that he was 
stupid enough to hope that I would permit such groundless and au- 
dacious assertions to go unexposed, — I readily consented that, on 
the score both of veracity and sagacity, the audience should judge 
whether he or I were the more deserving of the world's contempt. 

Mr. Lambom insists that the difference between the Van Bureu 
party and the Whigs is that although the former sometimes err in 
practice, they are always correct in principle, whereas the latter are 
wrong in principle ; and, better to impress this proposition, he uses 
a figurative expression in these words : '' The Democrats are vulner- 
able in the heel, but they are sound in the head and the heart." The 
first branch of the figure — that is, that the Democrats are vulnera- 
ble in the heel — I admit is not merely figuratively, but literally true. 
Who that looks but for a moment at their Swartwouts, their Prices, 
their Harringtons, and their hundreds of others, scampering away 
with the public money to Texas, to Europe, and to every spot of the 
earth where a villain may hope to find refuge from justice, can at 
all doubt that they are most distressingly affected in their heels with 
a species of " running itch." It seems that this malady of their heels 
operates on these sound-headed and honest-hearted creatures very 
much like the cork leg in the comic song did on its owner : which, 



36 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

when he had once got started on it, the more he tried to stop it, the 
more it would run away. At the hazard of wearing this point thread- 
bare, I will relate an anecdote which seems too strikingly in point to 
be omitted. A witty Irish soldier, who was always boasting of his 
bravery when no danger was near, but who invariably retreated 
without orders at the first charge of an engagement, being asked by 
his captain why he did so, replied : " Captain, I have as brave a heart 
as Juhus Ctesar ever had ; but, somehow or other, whenever danger 
approaches, my cowardly legs will run away with it." So with Mr. 
Lamborn's party. They take the public money into their hand for 
the most laudable purpose that wise heads and honest hearts can 
dictate ; but before they can possibly get it out again, their rascally 
" vulnerable heels" will run away with them. 

Seriously, this proposition of Mr. Lamborn is nothing more or less 
than a request that his party may be tried by their professions in- 
stead of their practices. Perhaps no position that the party assumes 
is more liable to or more deserving of exposure than this very modest 
request ; and nothing but the unwarrantable length to which I have 
already extended these remarks forbids me now attempting to expose 
it. For the reason given, I pass it by. 

I shall advert to but one more point. Mr. Lamborn refers to the 
late elections in the States, and from their results confidently pre- 
dicts that every State in the Union will vote for Mr. Van Buren at 
the next presidential election. Address that argument to cowards 
and to knaves; with the free and the brave it will effect nothing. 
It may be true ; if it must, let it. Many free countries have lost 
their liberty, and ours may lose hers; but if she shall, be it my 
proudest plume, not that I was the last to desert, but that I never 
deserted her. I know that the great volcano at Washington, aroused 
and directed by the evil spirit that reigns there, is belching forth the 
lava of political corruption in a current broad and deep, which is 
sweeping with frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth 
of the land, bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot or living 
thing; while on its bosom are riding, like demons on the waves of 
heU, the imps of that evil spirit, and fiendishly taunting all those 
who dare resist its destroying course with the hopelessness of their 
effort ; and, knowing this, I cannot deny that all may be swept away. 
Broken by it I, too, may be; bow to it 1 never will. The probability 
that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the sup- 
port of a cause we believe to be just ; it shall not deter me. If ever 
I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not 
wholly unworthy of its almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate 
the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside, and I 
standing up boldly and alone, and hurling defiance at her victorious 
oppressors. Here, without contemplating consequences, before high 
heaven and in the face of the world, I swear eternal fidelity to the 
just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my 
love. And who that thinks with me will not fearlessly adopt the 
oath that I take ? Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we 
may succeed. But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so. We still shall 
have the proud consolation of saying to our consciences, and to the 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 37 

departed shade of our country's freedom, that the cause approved 
of our judgment, and adored of our hearts, in disaster, in chains, 
in torture, in death, we never faltered in defending. 



December 23, 1839. — Letter to John T. Stuart. 

Springfield, December 23, 1839. 

Dear Stuart: Dr. Henry will write you all the political news. I 
write this about some little matters of business. You recollect you 
told me you had drawn the Chicago Masack money, and sent it to 

the claimants. A hawk-billed Yankee is here besetting me at 

every turn I take, saying that Robert Kinzie never received the 
eighty dollars to which he was entitled. Can you tell anything 
about the matter ? Again, old Mr. Wright, who lives up South Fork 
somewhere, is teasing me continually about some deeds which he says 
he left with you, but which I can find nothing of. Can you tell 
where they are ? The legislature is in session, and has suffered the 
bank to forfeit its charter without benefit of clergy. There seems to 
be little disposition to resuscitate it. 

Whenever a letter comes from you to Mrs. , I carry it to her, 

and then I see Betty; she is a tolerable nice ''fellow" now. Maybe 
I wiU write again when I get more time. Your friend, as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 

P. S. The Democratic giant is here, but he is not now worth 
talking about. A. L. 

January 1, 1840. — Letter to John T. Stuart. 

Springfield, January 1, 1840. 

Dear Stuart : There is considerable disposition, on the part of both 
parties in the legislature, to reinstate the law bringing on the con- 
gressional elections next summer. What motive for this the Locos 
have, I cannot tell. The Whigs say that the canal and other public 
works will stop, and consequently we shall then be clear of the for- 
eign votes, whereas by another year they may be brought in again. 
The Whigs of our district say that everything is in favor of holding 
the election next summer, except the fact of your absence, and sev- 
eral of them have requested me to ask your opinion on the matter. 
Write me immediately what you think of it. 

On the other side of this sheet I send you a copy of my Land 
Resolutions, which passed both branches of our legislature last win- 
ter. Will you show them to Mr, Calhoun, informing him of the 
fact of their passage through our legislature? Mr. Calhoun sug- 
gested a similar proposition last winter; and perhaps if he finds 
himself backed by one of the States, he may be induced to take it 
up again. You will see by the resolutions that you and the others 
of our delegation in Congress are instructed to go for them. 

[Without signature.] 



38 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

January [1 ?], 1840. — Circular from Whig Committee. 
Confidential. 



To Messrs. . 

Gentlemen : In obedience to a resolution of the Whig State Con- 
vention, we have appointed you the Central Whig Committee of 
your county. The trust confided to you will be one of watchfulness 
and labor; but we hope the glory of having contributed to the 
overthrow of the corrupt powers that now control our beloved 
country will be a sufficient reward for the time and labor you will 
devote to it. Our Whig brethren throughout the Union have met 
in convention, and after due deliberation and mutual concessions 
have elected candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency not 
only worthy of our cause, but worthy of the support of every true 
patriot who would have our country redeemed, and her institutions 
honestly and faithfully administered. To overthrow the trained 
bands that are opposed to us, whose salaried officers are ever on the 
watch, and whose misguided followers are ever ready to obey their 
smallest commands, every Whig must not only know his duty, but 
must firmly resolve, whatever of time and labor it may cost, boldly 
and faithfully to do it. Our intention is to organize the whole 
State, so that every Whig can be brought to the polls in the coming 
presidential contest. We cannot do this, however, without your co- 
operation; and as we do our duty, so we shall expect you to do 
yours. After due deliberation, the following is the plan of organi- 
zation, and the duties required of each county committee : 

(1) To divide their county into small districts, and to appoint in 
each a subcommittee, whose duty it shall be to make a perfect list 
of all the voters in their respective districts, and to ascertain with 
certainty for whom they will vote. If they meet with men who are 
doubtful as to the man they will support, such voters should be de- 
signated in separate lines, with the name of the man they will prob- 
ably support. 

(2) It will be the duty of said subcommittee to keep a constant 
watch on the doubtful voters, and from time to time have them 
talked to by those in whom they have the most confidence, and also 
to place in their hands such documents as will enlighten and in- 
fluence them. 

(3) It will also be their duty to report to you, at least once a 
month, the progress they are making, and on election days see that 
every Whig is brought to the polls. 

(4) The subcommittees should be appointed immediately; and by 
the last of April, at least, they should make their first report. 

(5) On the fii'st of each month hereafter we shall expect to 
hear from you. After the first report of your subcommittees, un- 
less there should be found a great many doubtful voters, you can 
tell pretty accurately the manner in which your county will vote. 
In each of your letters to us, you will state the number of certain 
votes both for and against us, as well as the number of doubtful 
votes, with your opinion of the manner in which they will be cast. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 39 

(6) When we have heard from all the counties, we shall be able 
to tell with similar accuracy the political complexion of the State. 
This information will be forwarded to you as soon as received. 

(7) Inclosed is a prospectus for a newspaper to be continued 
until after the presidential election. It wiU be superintended by 
ourselves, and every Whig in the State must take it. It will be 
published so low that every one can afford it. You must raise a 
fund and forward us for extra copies, — every county ought to send 
fifty or one hundred dollars, — and the copies will be forwarded to 
you for distribution among our political opponents. The paper will 
be devoted exclusively to the great cause in which we are engaged. 
Procure subscriptions, and forward them to us immediately. 

(8) Immediately after any election in your county, you must in- 
form us of its results ; and as early as possible after any general 
election we will give you the like information. 

(9) A senator in Congress is to be elected by our next legisla- 
ture. Let no local interests divide you ; but select candidates that 
can succeed. 

(10) Our plan of operations will of course be concealed from every 
one except our good friends who of right ought to know them. 

Trusting much in our good cause, the strength of our candidates, 
and the determination of the Whigs evervwhere to do their duty, 
we go to the work of organization in this State confident of success. 
We have the numbers, and if properly organized and exerted, with 
the gallant Harrison at our head, we shall meet our foes and con- 
quer them in all parts of the Union. 

Address your letters to Dr. A. G. Henry, R. F. Barrett, A. Lin- 
coln, E. D. Baker, J. F. Speed. 



January 20, 1840. — Letter to John T. Stuart. 

Springfield, January 20, 1840. 

Dear Stuart: Yours of the 5th instant is received. It is the 
first from you for a great while. You wish the news from here. 
The legislature is in session yet, but has done nothing of impor- 
tance. The following is my guess as to what will be done. The 
internal improvement system will be put down in a lump without 
benefit of clergy. The bank will be resuscitated with some trifling 
modifications. Whether the canal will go ahead or stop is very 
doubtful. Whether the State House will go ahead depends upon 
the laws already in force. A proposition made in the House to-day, 
to throw off to the Territory of Wisconsin about fourteen of our 
northern counties, decided : ayes, eleven ; noes, seventy. Be sure to 
send me as many copies of the " Life of Harrison " as you can spare 
from other uses. Be very sure to procure and send me the *' Senate 
Journal" of New York of September, 1814. I have a newspaper 
article which says that that document proves that Van Buren voted 
against raising troops in the last war. And, in general, send me 
everything you think will be a good " war-club." 

The nomination of Harrison takes first-rate. You know I am 



40 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

never sanguiue ; but I believe we will carry the State. The chance 
for doing so appears to me twenty-five per cent, better than it did 
for you to beat Douglas. A great many of the grocery sort of Van 
Buren men, as formerly, are out for Harrison. Our Irish black- 
smith, Gregory, is for Harrison. I believe I may say that all our 
friends think the chance of carrying the State very good. You 
have heard that the Whigs and Locos had a political discussion 
shortly after the meeting of the legislature. Well, I made a big 
speech which is in progress of printing in pamphlet form. To en- 
lighten you and the rest of the world, I shall send you a copy when 
it is finished. I can't think of anything else now. 

Your friend, as ever, A. Lincoln. 

January 21, 1840. — Letter to John T. Stuart. 

Springfield, January 21, 1840. 
Bear Stuart : A bill bringing on the congressional elections in 
this State next summer has passed the House of Representatives 
this minute. As I think it will also pass the Senate, I take the 
earliest moment to advise you of it. I do not think any one of our 
political friends wishes to push you off the track. Anticipating the 
introduction of this bill, I wrote you for your feelings on the subject 
several weeks since, but have received no answer. It may be that 
my letter miscarried ; if so, will you, on the receipt of this, wTite 
me what you think and feel about the matter ! Nothing new except 
i believe I have got our Truett debt secured. I have Truett's note 
at twelve months, with his brother Myers as security. 

Your friend, as ever, A. Lincoln. 

March 1, 1840. — Letter to John T. Stuart. 

Springfield, March 1, 1840. 
Dear Stuart : I have never seen the prospects of our party so 
bright in these parts as they are now. We shaU carry this county 
by a larger majority than we did in 1836, when you ran against 
May. I do not think my prospects individually are very flattering, 
for I think it probable I shall not be permitted to be a candidate ; 
but the party ticket will succeed triumphantly. Subscriptions to 
the " Old Soldier" pour in without abatement. This morning I 
took from the post-office a letter from Dubois inclosing the names 
of sixty subscribers; and on carrying it to Francis, I found he 
had received one hundred and forty more from other quarters by 
the same day's mail. That is but an average specimen of every 
day's receipts. Yesterday Douglas, having chosen to consider him- 
self insulted by something in the '' Journal," undertook to cane 
Francis in the street. Francis caught him by the hair and jammed 
him back against a market-cart, where the matter ended by Francis 
being pulled away from him. The whole affair was so ludicrous 
that Fran(ns and everybody else (Douglas excepted) have been 
laughing about it ever since. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 41 

I seud you the names of some of the Van Bureu men who have 
come out for Harrison about town, and suggest that you send them 
some documents : Moses Cofifman (he let us appoint him a delegate 
yesterday), Aaron Coffman, George Gregory, H. M.Briggs, John- 
son (at Birchall's book-store), Michael Glynn, Armstrong (not 

Hosea, nor Hugh, but a carpenter), Thomas Hunter, Moses Pilcher 
(he was always a Whig, and deserves attention), Matthew Crowder, 
Jr., Greenberry Smith, John Fagan, George Fagan, William Fagan 
(these three fell out with us about Early, and are doubtful now), 
John Cartmel, Noah Rickard, John Rickard, Walter Marsh (the fore- 
going should be addressed at Springfield). Also send some to 
Solomon Miller and John Auth at Saulsbury ; also to Charles 
Harper, Samuel Harper, and B. C. Harper; and T. J. Scroggins, 
John Scroggins, at Pulaski, Logan County. 

Speed says he wrote you what Jo. Smith said about you as he 

Eassed here. We will procure the names of some of his people 
ere and send them to you before long. Speed also says you must 
not fail to send us the New York journal he wrote for some time 
since. Evan Butler is jealous that you never send your compli- 
ments to him. You must not neglect him next time. 

Your friend, as ever, A. Lincoln. 



March 26, 1840. — Letter to John T. Stuart. 

Springfield, March 26, 1840. 

Dear Stuart: In relation to the Kinzie matter, I can say no 
more than this, that the check was taken from the bank by you, 
and on the same day you made a note in our memorandum-book 
stating you had sent it by mail to Kinzie ; but there is no memo- 
randuraconcerning it at Irwin's. Kinzie has ceased writing about 
it, and consequently I have some hope that he has received it. 

We have had a convention for nominating candidates in this 
county. Baker was put on the track for the Senate, and Bradford, 
Brown of the Island Grove, Josiah Francis, Darneille, and I for the 
House. Ninian was very much hurt at not being nominated, but 
he has become tolerably well reconciled. I was much, very much, 
wounded myself at his being left out. The fact is, the country dele- 
gates made the nominations as they pleased ; and they pleased to 
make them all from the country, except Baker and me, whom they 
supposed necessary to make stump speeches. Old Colonel Elkin is 
nominated for sheriff. That 's right. 

The Locos have no candidates on the track yet except Dick Tay- 
lor for the Senate. Last Saturday he made a speech, and May an- 
swered him. The way May let the wind out of him was a perfect 
wonder. The court-room was very full, and neither you nor I ever 
saw a crowd in this county so near all on one side, and all feeling 
so good, before. You will see a short account of it in the " Journal." 

Lincoln. 

Japh Bell has come out for Harrison. Ain't that a caution ? 



42 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 



October 31, 1840. — Letter to W. G. Anderson. 

Lawrenceville, October 31, 1840. 
W. G. Anderson. 

Bear Sir: Your note of yesterday is received. In the difficulty 
between us of which you speak, you say you think I was the aggres- 
sor. I do not think I was. You say my " words imported insult." 
I meant them as a fair set-off to your own statements, and not other- 
wise ; and in that light alone I now wish you to understand them. 
You ask for my present '' feelings on the subject." I entertain no 
unkind feelings to you, and none of any sort upon the subject, 
except a sincere regret that I permitted myself to get into such an 
altercation. Yours, etc., 

A. Lincoln. 



November 28, 1840. — Resolution in the Illinois Legislature. 

In the Illinois House of Representatives, November 28, 1840, Mr. 
Lincoln offered the following : 

Besolved, That so much of the governor's message as relates to fraudu- 
lent voting, and other fraudulent practices at elections, be refen-ed to the 
Committee on Elections, with instructions to said committee to prepare and 
report to the House a bill for such an act as may in their judgment afford 
the greatest possible protection of the elective franchise against all frauds 
of aU sorts whatever. 



December 4, 1840. — Remarks in the Illinois Legislature. 

In the House of Representatives, Illinois, December 4, 1840, on 
presentation of a report respecting petition of H. N. Purple, claim- 
ing the seat of Mr. Phelps from Peoria, Mr. Lincoln moved that the 
House resolve itself into Committee of the Whole on the question, 
and take it up immediately. Mr. Lincoln considered the question 
of the highest importance, whether an individual had a right to sit 
in this House or not. The course he should propose would be to 
take up the evidence and decide upon the facts seriatim. 

Mr. Drummond wanted time ; they could not decide in the heat 
of debate, etc. 

Mr. Lincoln thought that the question had better be gone into 
now. In courts of Yaw jurors were required to decide on evidence, 
without previous study or examination. They were required to know 
nothing of the subject until the evidence was laid before them for 
their immediate decision. He thought that the heat of pai-ty would 
be augmented by delay. 

The Speaker called Mr. Lincoln to order as being irrelevant ; no 
mention had been made of party heat. 

Mr. Drummond said he had only spoken of debate. 

Mr. Lincoln asked what caused the heat, if it was not party? Mr. 
Lincoln concluded by urging that the question would be decided 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 43 

now better than hereafter, and he thought with less heat and ex- 
citement. 
(Further debate, in which Lincoln participated.) 



December 4, 1840.— Remarks in the Illinois Legislature. 

In the Illinois House of Representatives, December 4, 1840, — 
House in Committee of the Whole on the bill providing for pay- 
ment of interest on the State debt, — Mr. Lincoln moved to strike 
out the body and amendments of the bill, and insert in lieu thereof 
au amendment which in substance was that the governor be autho- 
rized to issue bonds for the payment of the interest; that these be 
called "interest bonds"; that the taxes accruing on Congress lands 
as they become taxable be irrevocably set aside and devoted as a 
fund to the payment of the interest bonds. Mr. Lincoln went into 
the reasons which appeared to him to render this plan preferable to 
that of hypothecating the State bonds. By this course we could get 
along till the next meeting of the legislature, which was of great 
importance. To the objection which mi^ht be urged that these in- 
terest bonds could not be cashed, he replied that if our other bonds 
could, much more could these, which offered a perfect security, a 
fund being irrevocably set aside to provide for their redemption. To 
another objection that we should be paying compound interest, he 
would reply that the rapid growth and increase of our resources was 
in so great a ratio as to outstrip the diflBculty; that his object was 
to do the best that could be done in the present emergency. All 
agreed that the faith of the State must be preserved ; this plan ap- 
peared to him preferable to a hypothecation of bonds, which would 
have to be redeemed and the interest paid. How this was to be done, 
he could not see; therefore he had, after turning the matter over in 
every way, devised this measure, which would carry us on till the 
next legislature. 

(Mr. Lincoln spoke at some length, advocating his measure.) 

Lincoln advocated his measure, December 11, 1840. 

December 12, 1840, he had thought some permanent provision 
ought to be made for the bonds to be hypothecated, but was satisfied 
taxation and revenue could not be connected with it now. 



December 17, 1840. — Letter to »Tohn T. Stuart. 

Springfield, December 17, 1840. 
Bear Stuart: McRoberts was elected senator yesterday. The 
vote stood: McRoberts, seventy-seven ; Cyrus Edwards, fifty; E. D. 
Baker, one ; absent, three. This affair of appointment to oifice is 
very annoying — more so to you than to me, doubtless. I am, as you 
know, opposed to removals to make places for our friends. Bearing 
this in mmd, I express my preference in a few cases, as follows : For 
marshal, first, John Dawson ; second, Dr. B. F. Edwards. For post- 
master here, Dr. Heniy; Carlinville, Joseph C. Howell. There is no 



44 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

?uestion of the propriety of removing the postmaster at Carlinville. 
have been told by so many different persons as to preclude all doubt 
of its truth, that he boldly refused to deliver from his office during 
the canvass all documents franked by Whig members of Congress. 

Yours, Lincoln. 



January 23, 1841. — Remarks in the Illinois Legislature. 

In the Illinois House of Representatives, January 23, 1841, while 
discussing the continuation of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, Mr. 
Moore was afraid the holders of the ''scrip" would lose. 
Mr. Napier thought there was no danger of that; and 
Mr. Lincoln said he had not examined to see what amount of scrip 
would probably be needed. The principal point in his mind was 
this, that nobody was obliged to take these certificates. It is alto- 
gether voluntary on their part, and if they apprehend it wiU faU on 
their hands, they wiU not take it. Further, the loss, if any there be, 
wiU fall on the citizens of that section of the country. This scrip is 
not going to circulate over an extensive range of country, but will 
be confined chiefly to the vicinity of the canal. Now, we find the 
representatives of that section of the country are all in favor of the 
bill. When we propose to protect their interests, they say to us : 
Leave us to take care of ourselves ; we are wiUing to run the risk. 
And this is reasonable ; we must suppose they are competent to pro- 
tect their own interests, and it is only fair to let them do it. 



January 23, 1841. — Letter to John T. Stuart. 

Springfield, Illinois, January 23, 1841. 
Bear Stuart: Yours of the 3d instant is received, and I proceed 
to answer it as well as I can, though from the deplorable state of 
my mind at this time, I fear I shall give you but little satisfaction. 
Al30ut the matter of the congressional election, I can only tell you 
that there is a bill now before the Senate adopting the general ticket 
system ; but whether the party have f uUy determined on its adoption 
is yet uncertain. There is no sign of opposition to you among our 
friends, and none that I can learn among our enemies ; though of 
course there will be if the general ticket be adopted. The '' Chicago 
American," ''Peoria Register/' and "Sangamon Journal" have al- 
ready hoisted your flag upon their own responsibility, and the other 
Whig papers of the district are expected to follow immediately. On 
last evening there was a meeting of our friends at Butlei-'s, and I 
submitted the question to them, and found them unanimously in 
favor of having you announced as a candidate. A few of us this 
morning, however, concluded that as you were already being an- 
nounced in the papers, we would delay announcing you, as by your 
own authority, for a week or two. We thought that to appear too 
keen about it' might spur our opponents on about their general ticket 
project. Upon the whole, I think I may say with certainty that 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 45 

your reelection is sure, if it be iu the power of the Whigs to make 
it so. 

For not giving you a general summary of news, you must pardon 
me J it is not in my power to do so. I am now the most miserable 
man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole 
human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. 
Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell ; I awfully forebode I 
shall not. To remain as I am is impossible ; I must die or be better, 
it appears to me. The matter you speak of on my account you may 
attend to as you say, unless you shall hear of my condition forbid- 
ding it. I say this because I fear I shall be unable to attend to any 
business here^ and a change of scene might help me. If I could be 
myself, I would rather remain at home with Judge Logan. I can 
write no more. Your friend, as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 



February [8f,] 1841. — Circular from Whig Committee. 
Appeal to the People of the State of Illinois. 

Fellow-citizens : When the Greneral Assembly, now about adjoui'n- 
ing, assembled in November last, from the bankrupt state of the 
public treasury, the pecuniary embarrassments prevailing in every 
department of society, the dilapidated state of the public works, and 
the impending danger of the degradation of the State, you had a 
right to expect that your representatives would lose no time in de- 
vising and adopting measures to avert threatened calamities, allevi- 
ate the distresses of the people, and allay the fearful apprehensions 
in regard to the future prosperity of the State. It was not expected 
by you that the spirit of party would take the lead in the councils of 
the State, and make every interest bend to its demands. Nor was it 
expected that any party would assume to itself the entire control of 
legislation, and convert the means and of&ces of the State, and the 
substance of the people, into aliment for party subsistence. Neither 
could it have been expected by you that party spirit, however strong 
its desires and unreasonable its demands, would have passed the 
sanctuary of the Constitution, and entered with its unhallowed and 
hideous form into the formation of the judiciary system. 

At the early period of the session, measures were adopted by the 
dominant party to take possession of the State, to fill all public 
ofl&ces with party men, and make every measure affecting the inter- 
ests of the people and the credit of the State operate in furtherance 
of their party views. The merits of men and measures therefore be- 
came the subject of discussion in caucus, instead of the halls of leg- 
islation, and decisions there made by a minority of the legislature 
have been executed and carried into effect by the force of partj' dis- 
cipline, without any regard whatever to the rights of the people or 
the interests of the State. The Supreme Court of the State was or' 
ganized, and judges appointed, according to the provisions of the 
Constitution, in 1824. The people have never complained of the or- 



46 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ganization of that court; no attempt has ever before been made to 
change that department. Respect for public opinion, and regard for 
the rights and liberties of the people^ have hitherto restrained the 
spii'it of party from attacks upon the independence and integrity of 
the judiciary. The same judges have continued in office since 1824; 
their decisions have not been the subject of complaint among the 
people ; the integrity and honesty of the court have not been ques- 
tioned, and it has never been supposed that the court has ever per- 
mitted party prejudice or party considerations to operate upon their 
decisions. The court was made to consist of four judges, and by the 
Constitution two form a quorum for the transaction of business. 
With this tribunal, thus constituted, the people have been satisfied 
for near sixteen years. The same law which organized the Supreme 
Court in 1824 also established and organized circuit courts to be held 
in each county in the State, and five cii-cuit judges were appointed 
to hold those courts. In 1826 the legislature abolished these circuit 
courts, repealed the judges out of office, and required the judges of 
the Supreme Court to hold the circuit courts. The reasons assigned 
for this change were, first, that the business of the country could be 
better attended to by the four judges of the Supreme Court than by 
the two sets of judges ; and, second, the state of the public treasury 
forbade the employment of unnecessary officers. In 1828 a circuit 
was established north of the Illinois River, in order to meet the 
wants of the people, and a circuit judge was appointed to hold the 
courts in that circuit. 

In 1834 the circuit-court system was again established throughout 
the State, circuit judges appointed to hold the courts, and the judges 
of the Supreme Court were relieved from the performance of circuit- 
court duties. The change was recommended by the then acting 
governor of the State, General W. L. D. Ewing, in the following 
terms : 

The augmented population of the State, the multiplied number of or- 
ganized counties, as well as the increase of business in all, has long since 
convinced every one conversant with this department of our government of 
the indispensable necessity of an alteration in our judiciary system, and the 
subject is therefore recommended to the earnest patriotic consideration of 
the legislature. The present system has never been exempt from serious 
and weighty objections. The idea of appealing from the circuit coiu't to the 
same judges in the Supreme Com^ is recommended by httle hopes of redress 
to the injured party below. The duties of the circuit, too, it may be added, 
consume one half of the year, leaving a small and inadequate portion of time 
(when that required for domestic purposes is deducted) to erect, in the de- 
cisions of the Supreme Covirt, a judicial monument of legal learning and re- 
search, which the talent and abihty of the court might otherwise be entirely 
competent to. 

With this organization of circuit courts the people have never 
complained. The only complaints which we have heard have come 
from circuits which were so large that the judges could not dispose 
of the business, and the circuits in which Judges Pearson and Ral- 
ston lately presided. 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 47 

Whilst the honor and credit of the State demanded legislation 
upon the subject of the public debt, the canal, the unfinished public 
works, and the embarrassments of the people, the judiciary stood 
upon a basis which required no change — no legislative action. Yet 
the party in power, neglecting every interest requiring legislative 
action, and wholly disregarding the rights, wishes, and interests of 
the people, has, for the unholy purpose of providing places for its 
partizans and supplying them with large salaries, disorganized that 
department of the government. Provision is made for the election 
of five party judges of the Supreme Court, the proscription of four 
circuit judges, and the appointment of party clerks in more than 
half the counties of the State. Men professing respect for public 
opinion, and acknowledged to be leaders of the party, have avowed 
in the halls of legislation that the change in the judiciary was in- 
tended to produce political results favorable to their party and party 
friends. The immutable principles of justice are to make way for 
party interests, and the bonds of social order are to be rent in twain, 
in order that a desperate faction mav be sustained at the expense of 
the people. The change proposed m the judiciary was supported 
upon grounds so destructive to the institutions of the country, and 
so entirely at war with the rights and liberties of the people, that the 
party could not secure entire unanimity in its support, — three Demo- 
crats of the Senate and five of the House voting against the measure. 
They were unwilling to see the temples of justice and the seats of 
independent judges occupied by the tools of faction. The declara- 
tions of the party leaders, the selection of party men for judges, and 
the total disregard for the public will in the adoption of the measui-e, 
prove conclusively that the object has been not reform, but destruc- 
tion; not the advancement of the highest interests of the State, but 
the predominance of party. 

We cannot in this manner undertake to point out all the objec- 
tions to this party measure ; we present you with those stated by 
the Council of Revision upon returning the bill, and we ask for 
them a candid consideration. 

Believing that the independence of the judiciary has been de- 
stroyed, that hereafter our courts will be independent of the people, 
and entirely dependent upon the legislature ; that our rights of 
property and liberty of conscience can no longer be regarded as safe 
from the encroachments of unconstitutional legislation ; and know- 
ing of no other remedy which can be adopted consistently with the 
peace and good order of society, we call upon you to avail your- 
selves of the opportunity afforded, and, at the next general election, 
vote for a convention oi the people. 



S. H. Little, ^ 
E. D. Baker, 
J. J. Hardin, 
E. B, Webb, 
A. Lincoln, 
J. Gillespie, 



Committee on behalf of the 
Whig members of the Legislature. 



48 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

February 26, 1841. — Extract from a Protest in the Illinois 
Legislature against the Reorganization of the Judiciary. 

For the reason thus presented, and for others no less apparent, 
the undersigned cannot assent to the passage of the bill, or permit 
it to become a law, without this evidence of their disapprobation ; 
and they now protest against the reorganization of the judiciary, 
because — (1) It violates the great principles of free government by 
subjecting the judiciary to the legislature. (2) It is a fatal blow at 
the iudependenee of the judges and the constitutional term of their 
office. (3) It is a measure not asked for, or wished for, by the peo- 
ple. (4) It will greatly increase the expense of our courts, or else 
greatly diminish their utility. (5) It will ^ive our courts a politi- 
cal and pai'tizan character, thereby impairing public confidence in 
their decisions. (6) It will impair our standing with other States 
and the world. (7) It is a party measure for party purposes, from 
which no practical good to the people can possibly arise, but which 
may be the soui'ce of immeasurable evils. 

The undersigned are well aware that this protest will be alto- 
gether unavailing with the majority of this bodv. The blow has 
already fallen, and we are compelled to stand by, the mournful spec- 
tators of the ruin it will cause. 

Signed by 35 members, among whom was Abraham Lincoln. 



June 19, 1841.— Letter to Joshua F. Speed. 

Springfield, June 19, 1841. 
Dear Speed : We have had the highest state of excitement here 
for a week past that our community has ever witnessed ; and al- 
though the public feeling is somewhat allayed, the curious affair 
which aroused it is very far from being even yet cleared of mystery. 
It would take a quire of paper to give you anything like a fuU ac- 
count of it, and I therefore only propose a brief outline. The chief per- 
sonages in the drama are Archibald Fisher, supposed to be murdered, 
and Archibald Trailor, Henry Trailor, and William Trailor, sup- 
posed to have murdered him. The three Trailors are brothers: 
the first, Arch., as you know, lives in town ; the second, Henry, in 
Clary's Grove; and the third, William, in Warren County; and Fisher, 
the supposed murdered, being without a family, had made his home 
with William. On Saturday evening, being the 29th of May, Fisher 
and William came to Henry's in a one-horse dearborn, and there 
stayed over Sunday; and on Monday all three came to Spring- 
field (Henry on horseback), and joined Archibald at Myers's, the 
Dutch carpenter. That evening at supper Fisher was missing, and 
so next morning some ineffectual search was made for him ; and on 
Tuesday, at one o'clock P. m., William and Henry started home 
without him. In a day or two Henry and one or two of his Clary- 
Grove neighbors came back for him again, and advertised his dis- 
appearance in the papers. The knowledge of the matter thus far 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 49 

had not been general, and here it dropped entirely, till about the 
10th instant, when Kevs received a letter from the postmaster in 
Warren County, that William had arrived at home, and was telling 
a very mysterious and improbable story about the disappearance of 
Fisher, which induced the community there to suppose he liad been 
disposed of unfairly. Keys made this letter public, which imme- 
diately set the whole town and adjoining county agog. And so it 
has continued until yesterday. The mass of the people commenced a 
systematic search for the dead body, while Wickersham was de- 
spatched to arrest Henry Trailor at the Grove, and Jim Maxcy to 
Warren to arrest William. On Mouday last, Henry was brought in, 
and showed an evident inclination to insinuate that he knew Fisher 
to be dead, and that Arch, and William had killed him. He said he 
guessed the body could be found in Spring Creek, between the 
Beardstown road and Hickox's mill. Away the people swept like a 
herd of buffalo, and cut down Hickox's mill-dam nolens volens, to 
draw the water out of the pond, and then went up and down and 
down and up the creek, fishing and raking, and raking and ducking, 
and diving for two days, and, after all, no dead body found. 

In the mean time a sort of scuffling-ground had been found in the 
brush in the angle, or point, where the road leading into the woods 
past the brewery and the one leading in past the brick-yard meet. 
From the scufifte-ground was the sign of something about the size 
of a man having been dragged to the edge of the thicket, where it 
joined the track of some small- wheeled carriage drawn by one horse, 
as shown by the road-tracks. The carriage-track led off toward 
Spring Creek. Near this drag-trail Dr. Merryman found two hairs, 
which, after a long scientific examination, he pronounced to be tri- 
angular human hair, which term, he says, includes within it the 
whiskers, the hair growing under the arms and on other parts of the 
body ; and he judged that these two were of the whiskers, because 
the ends were cut, showing that they had flourished in the neigh- 
borhood of the razor's operations. On Thursday last Jim Maxcy 
brought in William Trailor from Warren. On the same day Arch, 
was arrested and put in jail. Yesterday (Friday) William was put 
upon his examining trial before May and Lovely. Archibald and 
Henry were both present. Lamborn prosecuted, and Logan, Baker, 
and your humble servant defended. A great many witnesses were 
introduced and examined, but I shall only mention those whose 
testimony seemed most important. The first of these was Captain 
Ransdell. He swore that when William and Henry left Springfield 
for home on Tuesday before mentioned, they did not take the direct 
route, — which, you know, leads by the butcher shop, — but that they 
followed the street north until they got opposite, or nearly opposite. 
May's new house, after which he could not see them from where he 
stood ; and it was afterward proved that in about an hour after they 
started, they came into the street by the butcher shop from toward 
the brick-yard. Dr. Merryman and others swore to what is stated about 
the scuffle-ground, drag-trail, whiskers, and carriage-tracks. Henry 
was then introduced by the prosecution. He swore that when they 
started for home, they went out north, as Ransdell stated, and turned 
Vol. L— 4. 



50 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

down west by the brick-yard into the woods, and there met Archi- 
bald ; that they proceeded a small distance farther, when he was 
placed as a sentinel to watch for and announce the approach of any 
one that might happen that wny ; that William and Arch, took the 
dearborn out of the road a small distance to the edge of the thicket, 
where they stopped, and he saw them lift the body of a man into it; 
that they then moved off with the carriage in the direction of Hickox's 
mill, and he loitered about for something like an hour, when Wil- 
liam returned with the carriage, but without Arch,, and said they 
had put him in a safe place; that they went somehow — he did not 
know exactly how — into the road close to the brewery, and pro- 
ceeded on to Clary's Grove. He also stated that some time during 
the day William told him that he and Arch, had killed Fisher the 
evening before; that the way they did it was by him (William) 
knocking him down with a club, and Arch, then choking him to 
death. 

An old man from Warren, called Dr. Gilmore, was then intro- 
duced on the part of the defense. He swore that he had known 
Fisher for several years; that Fisher had resided at his house a 
long time at each of two different spells — once while he built a 
barn for him, and once while he was doctored for some chronic 
disease ; that two or three years ago Fisher had a serious hurt in 
his head by the bursting of a gun, since which he had been subject 
to continued bad health and occasional aberration of mind. He also 
stated that on last Tuesday, being the same day that Maxey arrested 
William Trailor, he (the doctor) was from home in the early part of 
the day, and on his return, about eleven o'clock, found Fisher at his 
house in bed, and apparently very unwell ; that he asked him how he 
came from Springfield ; that Fisher said he had come by Peoria, and 
also told of several other places he had been at more in the direction 
of Peoria, which showed that he at the time of speaking did not know 
where he had been wandering about in a state of derangement. He 
further stated that in about two hours he received a note from one 
of Trailor's friends, advising him of his arrest, and requesting him 
to go on to Springfield as a witness, to testify as to the state of 
Fisher's liealth in former times ; that he immediately set off, calling 
up two of his neighbors as company, and, riding all evening and all 
night, overtook Maxcy and William at Lewiston in Fulton Countj^; 
that Maxcy refusing to discharge Trailor upon his statement, his 
two neighbors returned and he came on to Springfield. Some ques- 
tion being made as to whether the doctor's story was not a fabrica- 
tion, several acquaintances of his (among whom was the same 
postmaster who wrote Keys, as before mentioned) were introduced 
as sort of compurgators, who swore that they knew the doctor 
to be of good character for truth and veracity, and generally 
of good character in every way. Here the testimony ended, 
and the Trailors were discharged. Arch, and William express- 
ing both in word and manner their entire confidence that Fisher 
would be found alive at the doctor's by Galloway, Mallory, and 
Myers, who a day before had been despatched for that pui-pose; 
while Henry still protested that no power on eai*th could ever show 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 51 

Fisher alive. Thus stands this curious affair. When tiie doctor's 
story was first made public, it was amusing to scan and contemplate 
the countenances and hear the remarks of those who had been 
actively in search for the dead body : some looked quizzical, some 
melancholy, and some furiously angry. Porter, who had been very 
active, swore he always knew the man was not dead, and that he 
had not stirred an inch to hunt for him ; Laugford, who had taken 
the lead in cutting down Hickox's mill-dam, and wanted to hang 
Hickox for objecting, looked most awfully woebegone : he seemed 
the "victim of unrequited affection," as represented in the comic 
almanacs we used to laugh over; and Hart, the little drayman 
that hauled Molly home once, said it was too damned bad to have 
so much trouble, and no hanging after all. 

I commenced this letter on yesterday, since which I received yours 
of the 13th. I stick to my promise to come to Louisville. Nothing 

new here except what I have written. I have not seen since my 

last trip, and I am going out there as soon as I mail this letter. 
Yours forever, Lincoln. 



June 25, 1841. — Statement about Harry Wilton. 

It having been charged in some of the public prints that Harry 
Wilton, late United States marshal for the district of Illinois, had 
used his office for political effect, in the appointment of deputies for 
the taking of the census for the year 1840, we, the undersigned, were 
called upon by Mr. Wilton to examine the papers in his possession 
relative to these appointments, and to ascertain therefrom the cor- 
rectness or incorrectness of such charge. We accompanied Mr. Wil- 
ton to a room, and examined the matter as fully as we could with 
the means afforded us. The only sources of information bearing 
on the subject which were submitted to us, were the letters, etc., 
recommending and opposing the various appointments made, and 
Mr. Wilton's verbal statements concerning the same. From these 
letters, etc., it appears that in some instances appointments were 
made in accordance with the recommendations of leading Whi^s, 
aud in opposition to those of leading Democrats; among which in- 
stances the appointments at Scott, Wayne, Madison, and Lawrence 
are the strongest. According to Mr. Wilton's statement, of the 
seventy-six appointments we examined, fifty-four were of Demo- 
crats, eleven of Whigs, and eleven of unknown politics. 

The chief ground of complaint against Mr. Wilton, as we had 
understood it, was because of his appointment of so many Demo- 
cratic candidates for the legislature, thus giving them a decided ad- 
vantage over their Whig opponents ; and consequently our attention 
was directed rather particularly to that point. We found that there 
were many such appointments, among which were those in Taze- 
well, McLean, Iroquois, Coles, Menard, Wayne, Washington, Fayette, 
etc. ; and we did not learn that there was one instance in which a 
Whig candidate for the legislature had been appointed. There was 
no written evidence before us showing us at what time those ap- 



52 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

pointments were made ; but Mr. Wilton stated that they all, with 
one exception, were made before those appointed became candidates 
for the legislature, and the letters, etc., recommending them all bear 
date before, and most of them long before, those appointed were 
publicly announced candidates. 

We give the foregoing naked facts, and draw no conclusions from 
them. 

Benj. S. Edwards, 

June 25, 1841. A. Lincoln. 

September 27, 1841.— Letter to Miss Mary Speed. 

Bloomington, III., September 27, 1841. 
Miss Mary Speed, Louisville, Ky. 

My Friend : Having resolved to write to some of your mother's 
family, and not having the express permission of any one of them 
to do so, I have had some little difficulty in determining on which to 
inflict the task of reading what I now feel must be a most dull and 
silly letter ; but when I remembered that you and I were something 
of cronies while I was at Farmington, and that while there I was 
under the necessity of shutting you up in a room to prevent your 
committing an assault and battery upon me, I instantly decided 
that you should be the devoted one. I assume that you have not 
heard from Joshua and myself since we left, because I think it doubt- 
ful whether he has written. You remember there was some uneasi- 
ness about Joshua's health when we left. That little indisposition 
of his turned out to be nothing serious, and it was pretty nearly 
forgotten when we reached Springfield. We got on board the steam- 
boat Lebanon in the locks of the canal, about twelve o'clock m. of 
the day we left, and reached St. Louis the next Monday at 8 P. m. 
Nothing of interest happened during the passage, exce{)t the vexa- 
tious delays occasioned by the sand-bars be thought interesting. 
By the way, a fine example was presented on board the boat for 
contemplating the effect of condition upon human happiness. A 
gentleman had purchased twelve negroes in different parts of Ken- 
tucky, and was taking them to a farm in the South. They were 
chained six and six together. A small iron clevis was around the 
left wrist of each, and this fastened to the main chain hy a shorter 
one, at a convenient distance from the others, so that the negroes 
were strung together precisely like so many fish upon a trot-line. 
In this condition they were being separated forever from the scenes 
of their childhood, their friends, their fathers and mothers, and 
brothers and sisters, and many of them from their wives and 
children, and going into perpetual slavery, where the lash of the 
master is proverbially more ruthless and unrelenting than any other 
where; and yet amid all these distressing circumstances, as we 
would think 'them, they were the most cheerful and apparently 
happy creatures on board. One whose offense for which he had 
been sold was an over-fondness for his wife, played the fiddle almost 
continually, and the others danced, sang, cracked jokes, and played 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 53 

various games with cards from day to day. How true it is that 
" God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb," or in other words, that 
he renders the worst of human conditions tolerable, while he permits 
the best to be nothing better than tolerable. To return to the nar- 
rative. When we reached Springfield, I stayed but one day, when 
I started on this tedious circuit where I now am. Do you remem- 
ber my going to the city, while I was in Kentucky, to have a tooth 
extracted, and making a failure of it ? Well, that same old tooth 
got to paining me so much that about a week since I had it torn out, 
bringing with it a bit of the jaw-bone, the consequence of which 
is that my mouth is now so sore that I can neither talk nor eat. 

I am literally "subsisting on savory remembrances" — that is, 
being unable to eat, I am living upon the remembrance of the deli- 
cious dishes of peaches and cream we used to have at your house. 
When we left, Miss Fanny Henning was owing you a visit, as I under- 
stood. Has she paid it yet? If she has, are you not convinced that 
she is one of the sweefest girls in the world? There is but one 
thing about her, so far as I could perceive, that I would have other- 
wise than as it is — that is, something of a tendency to melancholy. 
This, let it be observed, is a misfortune, not a fault. 

Give her an assurance of my very highest regard when you see 
her. Is little Siss Eliza Davis at your house yet ? If she is, kiss 
her " o'er and o'er again " for me. 

Tell your mother that I have not got her "present" [an "Oxford" 
Bible] with me, but I intend to read it regularly when I return 
home. I doubt not that it is really, as she says, the best cure for 
the blues, could one but take it according to the truth. Give my 
respects to all your sisters (including Aunt Emma) and brothers. 
Tell Mrs. Peay, of whose happy face I shall long retain a pleasant 
remembrance, that I have been trying to think of a name for her 
homestead, but as yet cannot satisfy myself with one. I shall be 
very happy to receive a line from you soon after you receive this, 
and in case you choose to favor me with one, address it to Charles- 
ton, Coles County, 111., as I shall be there about the time to receive 
it. Your sincere friend, 

A. Lincoln. 



October 20, 1841. — Call for Whig State Convention. 

The undersigned, acting, as is believed, in accordance with the 
wishes of the Whig party, and in compliance with their duties as 
the Whig Central Committee of this State, appoint the third Mon- 
day of December next for the meeting of a Whig State Convention, 
at Springfield, for the purpose of nominating candidates for the of- 
fices of Governor and Lieutenant-Governor of this State for the 
coming election. 

It is recommended that the number of delegates to the conven- 
tion shall conform to the number of representatives entitled under 
the new apportionment ; but that in all cases every county shall be 
entitled to one delegate. 



54 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

We would urge upon our political friends in the different coun- 
ties to call meetings immediately for the election of delegates. 

It is ardently hoped that the counties will be fully represented, in 
order that the will of the people may be expressed in the selection of 
candidates. 

A. G. Henry, J. F. Speed, A. Lincoln, 
E. D. Baker, Wm. L. May, 

Whig State Central Committee. 
Springfield, Oct. 20, 1841. 



January [3 ?], 1842.— Letter to Joshua F. Speed. 

My dear Speed : Feeling, as you know I do, the deepest solicitude 
for the success of the enterprise you are engaged in, I adopt this as 
the last method I can adopt to aid you, in case (which God forbid!) 
you shall need any aid. I do not place what I am going to say on 
paper because I can say it better that way than I could by word of 
mouth, but, were I to say it orally before we part, most likely you 
would forget it at the very time when it might do you some good. 
As I think it reasonable that you will feel very badly some time be- 
tween this and the final consummation of your purpose, it is in- 
tended that you shall read this just at such a time. Why I say it is 
reasonable that you will feel very badly yet, is because of three 
special causes added to the general one which I shall mention. 

The general cause is, that you are naturally of a nervous temper- 
ament ; and this I say from what I have seen of you personally^ and 
what you have told me concerning your mother at various times, 
and concerning your brother William at the time his wife died. 
The first special cause is your exposure to bad weather on your 
journey, which my experience clearly proves to be very severe on 
defective nerves. The second is the absence of all business and 
conversation of friends, which might divert your mind, give it occa- 
sional rest from the intensity of thought which will sometimes wear 
the sweetest idea threadbare and turn it to the bitterness of death. 
The third is the rapid and near approach of that crisis on which all 
your thoughts and feelings concentrate. 

If from all these causes you shall escape and go through trium- 
phantly, without another " twinge of the soul," I shaU be most hap- 
pily but most egregiously deceived. If, on the contrary, you shall, 
as 1 expect you will at some time, be agonized and distressed, let 
me, who have some reason to speak with judgment on such a sub- 
ject, beseech you to ascribe it to the causes I have mentioned, and 
not to some false and ruinous suggestion of the Devil. 

" But," you will say, '* do not your causes apply to every one en- 
gaged in a like undertaking?" By no means. The particular 
causes, to a greater or less extent perhaps, do apply in all cases; but 
the general one, — nervous debility, which is the key and conductor 
of all the particular ones, and without which they would be utterly 
harmless, — though it does pertain to you, does not pertain to one in 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 55 

a thousand. It is out of this that the painful difference between 
you and the mass of the world springs. 

I know what the painful point with you is at all times when you 
are unhappy ; it is an apprehension that you do not love her as you 
should. What nonsense ! How came you to court her ? Was it 
because you thought she deserved it, and that you had given her 
reason to expect itf If it was for that, why did not the same reason 
make you court Ann Todd, and at least twenty others of whom you 
can think, and to whom it would apply with greater force than to 
her? Did you court her for her wealth ? Why, you know she had 
none. But you say you reasoned yourseK into it. What do you 
mean by that '1 Was it not that you found yourself unable to reason 
yourself out of it ? Did you not think, and partly form the purpose, 
of courting her the first time you ever saw her or heard of her ? 
What had reason to do with it at that early stage! There was 
nothing at that time for reason to work upon. Whether she was 
moral, amiable, sensible, or even of good character, you did not, nor 
could then know, except, perhaps, you might infer the last from the 
company you found her in. 

All you then did or could know of her was her personal appear- 
ance and deportment ; and these, if they impress at all, impress the 
heart, and not the head. 

Say candidly, were not those heavenly black eyes the whole basis 
of all your early reasoning on the subject f After you and I had 
once been at the residence, did you not go and take me all the way 
to Lexington and back, for no other purpose but to get to see her 
again, on our return on that evening to take a trip for that express 
object? What earthly consideration would you take to find her 
scouting and despising you, and giving herself up to another? But 
of this you have no apprehension ; and therefore you cannot bring 
it home to your feelings. 

I shall be so anxious about you that I shall want you to write by 
every mail. Your friend, 

Lincoln. 



Februarys, 1842. — Letter to Joshua F, Speed. 

Springfield, Illinois, February 3, 1842. 
Dear Speed : Your letter of the 25th January came to hand to-day. 
You weU know that I do not feel my own sorrows much more keenly 
than I do yours, when I know of them ; and yet I assure you I was 
not much hurt by what you wrote me of your excessively bad feel- 
ing at the time you wrote. Not that I am less capable of sympa- 
thizing with you now than ever, not that I am less your friend than 
ever, but because I hope and believe that your present anxiety and 
distress about her health and her life must and will forever banish 
those horrid doubts which I know you sometimes felt as to the 
truth of your affection for her. If they can once and forever be re- 
moved (and I almost feel a presentiment that the Almighty has sent 
your present aflliction expressly for that object), surely nothing can 



56 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

come in their stead to fQl their immeasurable measure of misery. 
The death-scenes of those we love are surely painful enough : but 
these we are prepared for and expect to see : they happen to all, and 
all know they must happen. Painful as they are, they are not an 
unlooked-for sorrow. Should she, as you fear, be destined to an 
early grave, it is indeed a great consolation to know that she is so 
well prepared to meet it. Her religion, which you once disliked so 
much, I will venture you now prize most highly. But I hope your 
melancholy bodings as to her early death are not well founded. I 
even hope that ere this reaches you she will have returned with im- 
proved and still improving health, and that you will have met her, 
and forgotten the sorrows of the past in the enjoyments of the pres- 
ent. I would say more if I could, but it seems that I have said 
enough. It really appears to me that you yourself ought to rejoice, 
and not sorrow, at this indubitable evidence of your undying affec- 
tion for her. Why, Speed, if you did not love her, although you 
might not wish her death, you would most certainly be resigned to 
it. Perhaps this point is no longer a question with you, and my 
pertinacious dwelling upon it is a rude intrusion upon your feel- 
ings. If so, you must pardon me. You know the hell I have suf- 
fered on that point, and how tender I am upon it. You know I do 
not mean wrong. I have been quite clear of ''hypo" since you left ; 

even better than I was along in the fall. I have seen but 

once. She seemed very cheerful, and so I said nothing to her about 
what we spoke of. 

Old Uncle Billy Herndon is dead, and it is said this evening that 
Uncle Ben Ferguson will not live. This, I believe, is all the news, 
and enough at that unless it were better. Write me immediately on 
the receipt of this. Your friend, as ever, 

Lincoln. 



February 13, 1842. — Letter to Joshua F. Speed. 

Springfield, Illinois, February 13, 1842. 
Bear Speed : Yours of the 1st instant came to hand three or f oui* 
days ago. When this shall reach you, you will have been Fanny's 
husband several days. You know my desire to befriend you is ever- 
lasting; that I wUl never cease while I know how to do anything. 
But you will always hereafter be on ground that I have never occu- 

Fied, and consequently, if advice were needed, I might advise wrong, 
do fondly hope, however, that you will never again need any com- 
fort from abroad. But should I be mistaken in this, should exces- 
sive pleasure still be accompanied with a painful countei'part at 
times, still let me urge you, as I have ever done, to remember, in the 
depth and even agony of despondency, that very shortly you are to 
feel well again. I am now fully convinced that you love her as ar- 
dently as you are capable of loving. Your ever being happy in her 
presence, and your intense anxiety about her health, if there were 
nothing else, would place this beyond all dispute in my mind. I 
incline to think it probable that your nerves will fail you occasion- 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 57 

ally for a while; but once you get them fii'inly guarded now, that 
trouble is over forever. I think, if I were you, in case my mind were 
not exactly right, I would avoid being idle^, I would immediately 
engage in some business, or go to makinf preparations for it, which 
would be the same thing. If you went through the ceremony calmly, 
or even with sufficient composui'e not to excite alarm in any present, 
you are safe beyond question, and in two or three months, to say the 
inost, will be the happiest of men. 

I would desire you to give my particular respects to Fanny; but 
perhaps you will not wish her to know you have received this, lest 
she should desire to see it. Make her write me an answer to my last 
letter to her; at any rate, I would set great value upon a note or let- 
ter from her. Write me whenever you have leisure. 

Yours forever, A. Lincoln. 

P. S. I have been quite a man since you left. 



February 22, 1842. — Address before the Springfield 
Washingtonian Temperance Society. 

Although the temperance cause has been in progress for near 
twenty years, it is apparent to all that it is just now being crowned 
with a degree of success hitherto unparalleled. 

The list of its friends is daily swelled by the additions of fifties, 
of hundreds, and of thousands. The cause itself seems suddenly 
transformed from a cold abstract theory to a living, breathing, active, 
and powerful chieftain, going forth " conquering and to conquer." 
The citadels of his great adversary are daily being stormed and dis- 
mantled ; his temple and his altars, where the rites of his idolatrous 
worship have long been performed, and where human sacrifices have 
long been wont to be made, are daily desecrated and deserted. The 
triumph of the conqueror's fame is sounding from hill to hill, from 
sea to sea, and from land to land, and calling millions to his stan- 
dard at a blast. 

For this new and splendid success we heartily rejoice. That that 
success is so much greater now than heretofore is doubtless owing 
to rational causes ; and if we would have it continue, we shall do 
well to inquire what those causes are. 

The warfare heretofore waged against the demon intemperance 
has somehow or other been erroneous. Either the champions en- 
gaged or the tactics they adopted have not been the most proper. 
These champions for the most part have been preachers, lawyers, 
and hired agents. Between these and the mass of mankind there is 
a want of approachability, if the term be admissible, partially, at 
least, fatal to their success. They are supposed to have no sympathy 
of feeling or interest with those very persons whom it is their object 
to convince and persuade. 

And again, it is so common and so easy to ascribe motives to men 
of these classes other than those they profess to act upon. The 
preacher, it is said, advocates temperance because he is a fanatic, and 
desires a union of the church and state ; the lawyer from his pride 



58 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and vanity of hearing himself speak ; and the hired agent for his 
salary. But when one who has long been known as a victim of in- 
temperance bursts the fetters that have bound him, and appears 
before his neighbors ''clothed and in his right mind," a redeemed 
specimen of long-lost humanity, and stands up, with tears of joy 
trembling in his eyes, to tell of the miseries once endured, now to be 
endured no more forever; of his once naked and starving children, 
now clad and fed comfortably; of a wife long weighed down with 
woe, weeping, and a broken heart, now restored to health, happiness, 
and a renewed affection ; and how easily it is all done, once it is re- 
solved to be done; how simple his language! — there is a logic and 
an eloquence in it that few with human feelings can resist. They 
cannot say that he desires a union of church and state, for he is not 
a church member; they cannot say he is vain of hearing himself 
speak, for his whole demeanor shows he would gladly avoid speak- 
ing at all; they cannot say he speaks for pay, for he receives 
none, and asks for none. Nor can his sincerity in any way be 
doubted, or his sympathy for those he would persuade to imitate his 
example be denied. 

In my judgment, it is to the battles of this new class of cham- 
pions that our late success is greatly, perhaps chiefly, owing. But, 
had the old-school champions themselves been of the most wise se- 
lecting, was their sj^stem of tactics the most judicious? It seems 
to me it was not. Too much denunciation against dram-sellers and 
dram-drinkers was indulged in. This I think was both impolitic 
and unjust. It was impolitic, because it is not much in the nature 
of man to be driven to anything; still less to be driven about that 
which is exclusively his own business ; and least of all where such 
driving is to be submitted to at the expense of pecuniary interest 
or burning appetite. When the dram-seller and drinker were inces- 
santly told — not in accents of entreaty and persuasion, diffidently 
addressed by erring man to an erring brother, but in the thun- 
dering tones of anathema and denunciation with which the lordly 
judge often groups together all the crimes of the felon's life, and 
thrusts them in his face just ere he passes sentence of death upon 
him — that they were the authors of all the vice and misery and 
crime in the land ; that they were the manufacturers and material 
of all the thieves and robbers and murderers that infest the eartli ; 
that their houses were the workshops of the devil ; and that their 
persons should be shunned by all the good and virtuous, as moral pesti- 
lences — I say, when they were told all this, and in this way, it is 
not wonderful that they were slow, very slow, to acknowledge the 
truth of such denunciations, and to join the ranks of their denoun- 
cers in a hue and cry against themselves. 

To have expected them to do otherwise than they did — to have 
expected them not to meet denunciation with denunciation, crimi- 
nation with crimination, and anathema with anathema — was to ex- 
pect a reversal of human nature, which is God's decree and can 
never be reversed. 

When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persua- 
sion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 59 

old and a true maxim " that a drop of honey catches more flies than 
a gallon of gall." So with men. If you would win a man to your 
cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein 
is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is 
the great highroad to his reason, and which, when once gained, you 
will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice 
of your cause, if indeed that cause really be a just one. On the con- 
trary, assume to dictate to his judgment, or to command his action, 
or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will re- 
treat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart; 
and though your cause be naked truth itself, transformed to the 
heaviest lance, harder than steel, and sharper than steel can be 
made, and thoucrh vou throw it with more than herculean force and 
precision, you shall be no more able to pierce him than to penetrate 
the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw. Such is man, and so 
must he be understood by those who would lead him, even to his 
own best interests. 

On this point the "Washingtonians greatly excel the temperance 
advocates of former times. Those whom they desire to convince 
and persuade are their old friends and companions. They know 
they are not demons, nor even the worst of men ; they know that 
generally they are kind, generous, and charitable, even beyond the 
example of their more staid and sober neighbors. They are practi- 
cal philanthi-opists ; and they glow with a generous and brotherly 
zeal that mere theorizers are incapal)le of feeling. Benevolence and 
charity possess their hearts entirely ; and out of the abundance of their 
hearts their tongues give utterance; " Love through all their actions 
runs, and all their words are mild." In this spirit they speak and 
act, and in the same they are heard and regarded. And when such 
is the temper of the advocate, and such of the audience, no good 
cause can be unsuccessful. But I have said that denunciations 
against dram-sellers and dram-drinkers are iiujust, as well as impol- 
itic. Let us see. I have not inquired at what period of time the use 
of intoxicating liquors commenced; nor is it important to know. 
It is sufficient that to all of us who now inhabit the world, the prac- 
tice of drinking them is just as old as the world itself — that is, we 
have seen the one just as long as we have seen the other. When all 
such of us as have now reached the years of maturity first opened 
our eyes upon the stage of existence, we found intoxicating liquor 
recognized by everybody, used by everybody, repudiated by no- 
body. It commonly entered into the first draught of the infant and 
the last draught of the dying man. From the sideboard of the par- 
son down to the ragged pocket of the houseless loafer, it was con- 
stantly found. Physicians prescribed it in this, that, and the other 
disease ; government provided it for soldiers and sailors ; and to 
have a rolling or raising, a husking or '^hoedown^" anywhere about 
without it was positively insufferable. So, too, it was everywhere 
a respectable article of manufacture and merchandise. The making 
of it was regarded as an honorable livelihood, and he who could make 
most was the most enterprising and respectable. Large and small 
manufactories of it were everywhere erected, in which all the earthly 



60 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

goods of their owners were invested. Wagons drew it from town 
to town ; boats bore it from clime to clime, and the winds wafted it 
from nation to nation ; and merchants bought and sold it, by whole- 
sale and retail, with precisely the same feelings on the part of the 
seller, buyer, and bystander as are felt at the selling and buying of 
plows, beef, baeon^ or any other of the real necessaries of life. Uni- 
versal public opinion not only tolerated but recognized and adopted 
its use. 

It is true that even then it was known and acknowledged that 
many were greatly injured by it; but none seemed to think the 
injury arose from the use of a bad thing, but from the abuse of a 
very good thing. The victims of it were to be pitied and compas- 
sionated, just as are the heirs of consumption and other hereditary 
diseases. Their failing was treated as a misfortune, and not as a 
crime, or even as a disgrace. If, then, what I have been saying is true, 
is it wonderful that some should think and act now as aU thought 
and acted twenty years ago? and is it just to assail, condemn, or 
despise them for doing so ? The universal sense of mankind on any 
subject is an argument, or at least an influence, not easily overcome. 
The success of the argument in favor of the existence of an over- 
ruling Providence mainly depends upon that sense ; and men ought 
not in justice to be denounced for yielding to it in any case, or giving 
it up slowly, especially when they are backed by interest, fixed habits, 
or burning appetites. 

Another error, as it seems to me, into which the old reformers fell, 
was the position that all habitual drunkards were utterly incorri- 
gible, and therefore must be turned adrift and damned without 
remedy in order that the grace of temperance might abound, to the 
temperate then, and to all mankind some hundreds of years there- 
after. There is in this something so repugnant to humanity, so un- 
charitable, so cold-blooded and feelingless, that it never did nor 
ever can enlist the enthusiasm of a popular cause. We could not 
love the man who taught it — we could not hear him with patience. 
The heart could not throw open its portals to it, the generous man 
could not adopt it — it could not mix with his blood. It looked so 
fiendishly selfish, so like throwing fathers and brothers overboard to 
lighten the boat for our security, that the noble-minded shrank from 
the manifest meanness of the thing. And besides this, the benefits 
of a reformation to be effected by such a system were too remote in 
point of time to warmly engage many in its behalf. Few can be in- 
duced to labor exclusively for posterity ; and none will do it enthu- 
siastically. Posterity has done nothing for us ; and theorize on it 
as we may, practically we shall do very little for it, unless we are 
made to think we are at the same time doing something for ourselves. 

What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit, to ask or ex- 
pect a whole community to rise up and labor for the temporal hap- 
piness of others, after themselves shall be consigned to the dust, a 
majority of which community take no pains whatever to secure their 
own eternal welfare at no more distant day? Great distance in 
either time or space has wonderful power to lull and render quies- 
cent the human mind. Pleasures to be enjoyed, or pains to be en- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 61 

dured, after we shall be dead and gone are but little regarded even 
in our own cases, and much less in the cases of others. Still, in ad- 
dition to this there is something so ludicrous in promises of good or 
threats of evil a great way off as to render the whole subject with 
which they are connected easily turned into ridicule. " Better la}^ 
down that spade you are stealing, Paddy ; if you don't you '11 pay 
for it at the day of judgment." '^ Be the powers, if ye '11 credit me 
so long I '11 take another jist." 

By the Washingtonians this system of consigning the habitual 
drunkard to hopeless ruin is repudiated. They adopt a more en- 
larged philanthropy; they go for present as well as future good. 
They labor for all now living, as well as hereafter to live. They 
teach hope to all — despair to none. As applying to their cause, 
they deny the doctrine of unpardonable sin: as in Christianity it is 
taught, so in this they teach — " While the lamp holds out to burn, 
The vilest sinner may return." And, what is a matter of more 
profound congratulation, they, by experiment upon experiment and 
example upon example, prove the maxim to be no less true in the 
one case than in the other. On every hand we behold those who 
but yesterday were the chief of sinners, now the chief apostles of 
the cause. Drunken devils are cast out by ones, by sevens, by legions ; 
and their unfortunate victims, like the poor possessed who were 
redeemed from their long and lonely wanderings in the tombs, are 
publishing to the ends of the earth how great things have been done 
for them. 

To these new champions and this new system of tactics our late 
success is mainly owing, and to them we must mainly look for the 
final consummation. The ball is now rolling gloriously on, and 
none are so able as they to increase its speed and its bulk, to add to 
its momentum and its magnitude — even though unlearned in let- 
ters, for this task none are so well educated. To fit them for this 
work they have been taught in the true school. They have been in 
that gulf from which they would teach others the means of escape. 
They have passed that prison wall, which others have long declared 
impassable ; and who that has not shall dare to weigh opinions with 
them as to the mode of passing? 

But if it be true, as I have insisted, that those who have suffered 
))}' intemperance personally, and have reformed, are the most pow- 
erful and efficient instruments to push the reformation to ultimate 
success, it does not follow that those who have not suffered have no 
part left them to perform. Whether or not the world would be 
vastly benefited by a total and final banishment from it of all iutox- 
icatiug drinks seems to me not now an open question. Three 
fourths of mankind confess the affirmative with their tongues, and, 
I believe, all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts. 

Ought any, then, to refuse their aid in doing what good the good 
of the whole demands ? Shall he who cannot do much be for that 
reason excused if he do nothing? ''But," says one, "what good 
can I do by signing the pledge ? I never drink, even without sign- 
ing." This question has already been asked and answered more 
than a million of times. Let it be answered once more. For the 



62 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

man suddenly or in any other way to break off from the use of 
drams, who has indulged in them for a long course of years, and 
until his appetite for them has grown ten- or a hundi'ed-fold 
stronger, and more craving than any natural appetite can be, re- 
quires a most powerful moral effort. In such an undertaking he 
needs every moral support and influence that can possibly be 
brought to his aid and thrown around him. And not only so, but 
every moral prop should be taken from whatever argument might 
rise in his mind to lure him to his backsliding. When he casts his 
eyes around him, he should be able to see all that he respects, all 
that he admires, all that he loves, kindly and anxiously pointing 
him onward, and none beckoning him back to his former miserable 
" wallowing in the mire." 

But it is said by some that men will think and act for themselves; 
that none will disuse spirits or anything else because his neighbors 
do ; and that moral influence is not that powerful engine contended 
for. Let us examine this. Let me ask the man who could maintain 
this position most stiflly, what compensation he will accept to go to 
church some Sunday and sit during the sermon with his wife's bon- 
net upon his head? Not a trifle, I '11 venture. And why not? 
There would be nothing irreligious in it, nothing immoral, nothing 
uncomfortable — then why not ? Is it not because there would be 
something egregiously unfashionable in it ? Then it is the influ- 
ence of fashion ; and what is the influence of fashion but the in- 
fluence that other people's actions have on our actions — the strong 
inclination each of us feels to do as we see all our neighbors do ? 
Nor is the influence of fashion confined to any particular thing or 
class of things ; it is just as strong on one subject as another. Let us 
make it as unfashionable to withhold our names from the temper- 
ance cause as for husbands to wear their wives' bonnets to church, 
and instances will be just as rare in the one case as the other. 

" But," say some, ** we are no drunkards, and we shall not ac- 
knowledge ourselves such by joining a reformed drunkards' society, 
whatever our influence might be." Surely no Christian will adhere 
to this objection. If they believe as they profess, that Omnipotence 
condescended to take on himself the form of sinful man, and as such 
to die an ignominious death for their sakes, surely they will not 
refuse submission to the infinitely lesser condescension, for the tem- 
poral, and perhaps eternal, salvation of a large, erring, and unfor- 
tunate class of their fellow-creatures. Nor is the condescension very 
great. In my judgment such of us as have never fallen victims have 
been spared more by the absence of appetite than from any mental 
or moral superiority over those who have. Indeed, I believe if we 
take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will 
bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class. 
There seems ever to have been a proneness in the brilliant and warm- 
blooded to fall into this vice — the demon of intemperance ever 
seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of gen- 
erosity. What one of us but can call to mind some relative, more 
Eromising in youth than all his fellows, who has fallen a sacrifice to 
is rapacity? He ever seems to have gone forth like the Egyptian 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 63 

angel of death, commissioned to slay, if not the first, the fairest born 
of every family. Shall he now be arrested in his desolating career? 
In that arrest all can give aid that will; and who shall be excused 
that can and will not? Far around as human breath has ever blown 
he keeps our fathers, our brothers, our sons, and our friends pros- 
trate in the chains of moral death. To all the living everywhere 
we cry, ''Come sound the moral trump, that these may rise and 
stand up an exceeding great army." " Come from the four winds, 
O breath ! and breathe upon these slain that they may live." If the 
relative grandeur of revolutions shall be estimated by the great 
amount of human misery they alleviate, and the small amount 
they inflict, then indeed will this be the grandest the world shall 
ever have seen. 

Of our political revolution of '76 we are all justly proud. It has 
given us a degree of political freedom far exceeding that of any other 
nation of the earth. In it the world has found a solution of the 
long-mooted problem as to the capability of man to govern himself. 
In it was the germ which has vegetated, and still is to grow and ex- 
pand into the universal liberty of mankind. But, with all these 
glorious results, past, present, and to come, it had its evils too. It 
breathed forth famine, swam in blood, and rode in fire ; and long, 
long after, the orphan's cry and the widow's wail continued to break 
the sad silence that ensued. These were the price, the inevitable 
price, paid for the blessings it bought. 

Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it we shall find a 
stronger bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater 
tyrant deposed; in it, more of want supplied, more disease healed, 
more sorrow assuaged. By it no orphans starving, no widows 
weeping. By it, none wounded in feeling, none injured in interest; 
even the dram-maker and dram-seller will have glided into other 
occupations so gradually as never to have felt the change, and will 
stand ready to join all others in the universal song of gladness. 
And what a noble ally this to the cause of political freedom ; with 
such an aid its march cannot fail to be on and on, till every son of 
earth shall drink in rich fruition the sorrow-quenching draughts 
of perfect liberty. Happy day when — all appetites controlled, all 
poisons subdued, all matter subjected — mind, all conquering mind, 
shall live and move, the monarch of the world. Glorious consum- 
mation! Hail, fall of fiuy! Reign of reason, all hail! 

And when the victory shall be complete, — when there shall be 
neither a slave nor a drunkard on the earth, — how proud the title 
of that land which may truly claim to be the birthplace and the 
cradle of both those revolutions that shall have ended in that vic- 
tory. How nobly distinguished that people who shall have planted 
and nurtured to maturity both the political and moral freedom of 
their species. 

This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birthday of 
Washington ; we are met to celebrate this day. Washington is the 
mightiest name of earth — long since mightiest in the cause of civil 
liberty, still mightiest in moral reformation. On that name no eu- 
logy is expected. It cannot be. To add brightness to the sun or 



64 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

glory to the name of Washington is alike impossible. Let none at- 
tempt it. In solemn awe pronounce the name, and in its naked death- 
less splendor leave it shining on. 

February 25, 1842. — Letter to Joshua F. Speed. 

Springfield, February 25, 1842. 

Bear Speed: Yours of the 16th instant, announcing that Miss 
Fanny and you are " no more twain, but one flesh," reached me this 
morning. I have no way of telling you how much happiness I wish 
you boui, though 1 believe you both can conceive it. I feel some- 
what jealous of both of you now : you will be so exclusively con- 
cerned for one another, that I shall be forgotten entirely. My 
acquaintance with Miss Fanny (I call her this, lest you should think 
I am speaking of your mother) was too short for me to reasonably 
hope to long be remembered by her; and still I am sure I shall not 
forget her soon. Try if you cannot remind her of that debt she 
owes me — and be sure you do not interfere to prevent her paying it. 

I regret to learn that you have resolved to not return to Illinois. 
I shall be very lonesome without you. How miserably things 
seem to be arranged in this world ! If we have no friends, we have 
no pleasure ; and if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and 
be doubly pained by the loss. I did hope she and you would make 
your home here; but I own I have no right to insist. You owe 
obligations to her ten thousand times more sacred than you can owe 
to others, and in that light let them be respected and observed. It 
is natural that she should desire to remain with her relatives and 
friends. As to friends, however, she could not need them anywhere: 
she would have them in abundance here. 

Give my kind remembrance to Mr. Williamson and his family, 
particularly Miss Elizabeth ; also to your mother, brother, and sis- 
ters. Ask little Eliza Davis if she will ride to town with me if I 
come there again. And finally, give Fanny a double reciprocation 
of all the love she sent me. Write me often, and believe me 

Yours forever, Lincoln. 

P. S. Poor Easthouse is gone at last. He died awhile before 
day this morning. They say he was very loath to die. . . . 

L. 

February 25, 1842. — Letter to Joshua F. Speed. 

Springfield, February 25, 1842. 

Dear Speed: I received yours of the 12th written the day you 
went down to William's place, some days since, but delayed answer- 
ing it till I should receive the promised one of the 16th, which came 
last night. I opened the letter with intense anxiety and trepidation ; 
so much so, that, although it turned out better than I expected, I have 
hardly yet, at a distance of ten hours, become calm. 

I tell you. Speed, our forebodings (for which you and I are pecu- 
liar) are aU the worst sort of nonsense. I fancied, from the time I 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 65 

received your letter of Saturday, that the one of Wednesday was 
never to come, and yet it did come, and what is more, it is perfectly 
clear, both from its tone and handwriting, that you were much hap- 
pier, or, if you think the term preferable, less miserable, when you 
wrote it than when you wrote the last one before. You had so ob- 
viously improved at the very time I so much fancied you would 
have grown worse. You say that something indescribably horrible 
and alarming still haunts you. You will not say that three months 
from now, I will venture. When your nerves once get steady now, 
the whole trouble will be over forever. Nor should you become impa- 
tient at their being even very slow in becoming steady. Again you 
say, you much fear that that Elysium of which you have dreamed 
so much is never to be realized. Well, if it shall not, I dare swear 
it will not be the fault of her who is now your wife. I now have no 
doubt that it is the peculiar misfortune of both you and me to 
dream dreams of Elysium far exceeding all that anything earthly 
can realize. Far short of your dreams as you may be, no woman 
could do more to realize them than that same black-eyed Fanny. If 
you could but contemplate her through my imagination, it would ap- 
pear ridiculous to you that any one should for a moment think of 
being unhappy with her. My old father used to have a saying that 
" If you make a bad bargain, hug it all the tighter" ; and it occurs 
to me that if the bargain you have just closed can possibly be 
called a bad one, it is certainly the most pleasant one for applying 
that maxim to which my fancy can hy any effort picture. 

I write another letter, inclosing this, which you can show her, if 
she desires it. I do this because she would think strangely, perhaps, 
should you tell her that you received no letters from me, or, telling 
her you do, refuse to let her see them. I close this, entertaining the 
confident hope that every successive letter I shall have from you 
(which I here pray may not be few, nor far between) may show you 
possessing a more steady hand and cheerful heart than the last 
preceding it. As ever, your friend, 

Lincoln. 



March 27, 1842. — Letter to Joshua F. Speed. 

Springfield, March 27, 1842. 
Dear Speed: Yours of the 10th instant was received three or four 
days since. You know I am sincere when I tell you the pleasure its 
contents gave me was, and is, inexpressible. As to your farm matter, 
I have no sympathy with you. I have no farm, nor ever expect to 
have, and consequently have not studied the subject enough to be 
much interested with it. I can only say that I am glad you are 
satisfied and pleased with it. But on that other subject, to me of 
the most intense interest whether in joy or sorrow, I never had the 
power to withhold my sympathy from you. It cannot be told how 
it now thrills me with joy to hear you say you are "far happier than 
you ever expected to be." That much I know is enough. I know 
you too well to suppose your expectations were not, at least, some- 
V0L.L— 5. 



66 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF .ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

times extravagant, and if the reality exceeds them all, I say, Enough, 
dear Lord. I am not going beyond the truth when I teU you that 
the short space it took me to read your last letter gave me more plea- 
sure than the total sum of all I have enjoyed since the fatal 1st of 
January, 1841. Since then it seems to me I should have been en- 
tirely happy, but for the never-absent idea that there is one still un- 
happy whom I have contributed to make so. That still kills my soul. 
I cannot but reproach myself for even wishing to be happy while 
she is otherwise. She accompanied a large party on the rail- 
road cars to Jacksonville last Monday, and on her return spoke, so 
that I heard of it, of having enjoyed the trip exceedingly. God be 
praised for that. 

You know with what sleepless vigilance I have watched you ever 
since the commencement of your affair ; and although I am almost 
confident it is useless, I cannot forbear once more to say that I think 
it is even yet possible for your spirits to flag down and leave you 
miserable. If they should, don't fail to remember that they cannot 
long remain so. One thing I can tell you which I know you will be 

glad to hear, and that is that I have seen and scrutinized her 

feelings as well as I could, and am fully convinced she is far happier 
now than she has been for the last fifteen months past. 

You will see by the last " Sangamon Journal" that I made a 
temperance speech on the 22d of February, which I claim that Fanny 
and you shall read as an act of charity to me ; for I cannot learn 
that anybody else has read it, or is likely to. Fortunately it is not 
very long, and I shall deem it a sufficient compliance with my re- 
quest if one of you listens while the other reads it. 

As to your Lockridge matter, it is only necessary to say that there 
has been no com*t since you left, and that the next commences to- 
morrow morning, during which I suppose we cannot fail to get a 
judgment. 

I wish you would learn of Everett what he would take, over and 
above a dischai-ge for all the trouble we have been at, to take his busi- 
ness out of our hands and give it to somebody else. It is impos- 
sible to collect money on that or any other claim here now ; and 
although you know I am not a very petulant man, I declare I am 
almost out of patience with Mr. Everett's importunity. It seems like 
he not only writes all the letters he can himself, but gets everybody 
else in Louisville and vicinity to be constantly writing to us about 
his claim. I have always said that Mr. Everett is a very clever fel- 
low, and I am very sorry he cannot be obliged ; but it does seem to 
me he ousrht to know we are interested to collect his claim, and there- 
fore would do it if we could. 

I am neither joking nor in a pet when I say we would thank him 
to transfer his business to some other, without any compensation for 
what we have done, provided he ^vill see the com-t cost paid, for 
which we are security. 

The sweet \'iolet you inclosed came safely to hand, but it was so 
di-y, and mashed so flat, that it crumbled todust at the first attempt 
to handle it. The juice that mashed out of it stained a place in the 
letter, which I mean to preserve and cherish for the sake of her who 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 67 

{)rocured it to be sent. My renewed good wishes to her in particu- 
ax, and generally to all such of your relations who know me. 

As ever, Lincoln. 

July 4, 1842. — Letter to Joshua F. Speed. 

Springfield, Illinois, July 4, 1842. 

Dear Speed: Yours of the 16th June was received only a day or 
two since. It was not mailed at Louisville till the 25th. You speak 
of the great time that has elapsed since I wrote you. Let me ex- 
plain that. Your letter reached here a day or two after I had started 
on the circuit. I was gone five or six weeks, so that I got the letters 
only a few weeks before Butler started to your country. I thought 
it scarcely worth while to write you the news which he could and 
would tell you more in detail. On his return he told me you would 
write me soon, and so I waited for your letter. As to my ha\'ing 
been displeased with your advice, surely you know better than that. 
I know you do, and therefore will not labor to convince you. True, 
that subject is painful to me ; but it is not your silence, or the sUence 
of aU the world, that can make me forget it. I acknowledge the 
correctness of your ad\dce too ; but before I resolve to do the one 
thing or the other, I must gain my confidence in my own ability to 
keep my resolves when they are made. In that ability you know I 
once prided myself as the only or chief gem of my character ; that 
gem I lost — how and where you know too well. I have not yet re- 
gained it ; and until I do, I cannot trust myself in any matter of 
much importance. I believe now that had you understood my case 
at the time as well as I understood yours afterward, by the aid you 
would have given me I should have sailed through clear, but that 
does not now afford me sufficient confidence to begin that or the 
like of that again. 

You make a kind acknowledgment of your obligations to me for 
your present happiness. I am pleased with that acknowledgment. 
But a thousand times more am I pleased to know that you enjoy a 
degree of happiness worthy of an acknowledgment. The truth is, I 
am not sure that there was any merit with me in the part I took in 
your difficulty ; I was drawn to it b}'^ a fate. If I would I could not 
have done less than I did. I always was superstitious ; I believe 
God made me one of the instruments of bringing yonr Fanny and 
you together, which union I have no doubt he had fore-ordained. 
Whatever he designs he will do for me yet. " Stand still, and see 
the salvation of the Lord" is my text just now. If, as you say, you 
have told Fanny all, I should have no objection to her seeing this 
letter, but for its reference to our friend here : let her seeing it de- 
pend upon whether she has ever known anything of my affairs ; and 
if she has not, do not let her. 

I do not think I can come to Kentucky this season. I am so poor 
and make so little headway in the world, that I drop back in a month 
of idleness as much as I gain in a year's sowing. I should like to 
visit you again. I should like to see that "sis" of yours that was 



68 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

abseut wheu I was there, though I suppose she would run away 
again if she were to hear I was coming. 

My respects and esteem to all your friends there, and, by your 
permission, my love to your Fanny. Ever yours, 

Lincoln. 



August 29, 1842. — Invitation to Henry Clay. 

Springfield, Illinois, August 29, 1842. 
Hon. Henry Clay, Lexington, Kentucky. 

Dear ^ir: We hear you are to visit Indianapolis, Indiana, on the 
5th of October next. If our information in this is correct, we hope 
you will not deny us the pleasure of seeing you in our State. We 
are aware of the toil necessarily incident to a journey by one cir- 
cumstanced as you are ; but once you have embarked, as you have 
already determined to do, the toil would not be greatly augmented 
by extending the journey to our capital. The season of the year 
will be most favorable for good roads and pleasant weather; and 
although we cannot but believe j^ou would be highly gratified with 
such a visit to the prairie-land, the pleasure it would give us, and 
thousands such as we, is beyond all question. You have never vis- 
ited Illinois, or at least this portion of it ; and should you now yield 
to our request, we promise you such a reception as shall be worthy 
of the man on whom are now turned the fondest hopes of a great 
and suffering nation. 

Please inform us at the earliest convenience whether we may ex- 
pect you. Very respectfully, your obedient servants. 



A. Ct. Henry, 


A. T. Bledsoe, 


C. BiRCHALL, 


A. Lincoln, 


J. M. Cabaniss, 


RoBT. Irwin, 


P. A. Saunders, 


J. M. Allen, 


J. N. Francis, 


Executive Committee, ''Clay Chih" 



(Clay's answer, September 6, 1842, declines with thanks. 



September 17, 1842. — Correspondence about the 
Lincoln-Shields Duel. 

Tremont, September 17, 1842. 
A. Lincoln, Esq. : I regret that my absence on public business 
compelled me to postpone a matter of private consideration a little 
longer than I could have desired. It will only be necessary, however, 
to account for it by informing you that I have been to Quinoy on 
business thatw-ould not admit of delay. I will now state briefly the 
reasons of my troubling you ^vith this communication, the disagree- 
able nature of which I regret, as I had hoped to avoid any difficulty 
with any one in Springfield while residing there, by endeavoring to 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 69 

conduct myself in such a way amongst both my political friends and 
opponents as to escape the necessity of any. Whilst thus abstaining 
from giving provocation, I have become the object of slander, vitu- 
peration, and personal abuse, which, were I capable of submitting 
to, I would prove myself worthy of the whole of it. 

In two or three of the last numbers of " The Sangamon Journal," 
articles of the most personal nature and calculated to degrade me 
have made their appearance. On inquiring, I was iuformed by the 
editor of that paper, through the medium of my friend General 
Whitesides, that you are the author of those articles. This informa- 
tion satisfies me that I have become by some means or other the ob- 
ject of your secret hostility. I will not take the trouble of inquiring 
into the reason of all this ; but I will take the liberty of requiring a 
full, positive, and absolute retraction of all offensive allusions used 
by you in these communications, in relation to my private character 
and standing as a man, as an apology for the insults conveyed in 
them. 

This may prevent consequences which no one will regret more 
than myself. Your obedient servant, 

Jas. Shields. 



Tremont, September 17, 1842. 

Jas. Shields, Esq. : Your note of to-day was handed me by Gen- 
eral Whitesides. In that note you say you have been informed, 
through the medium of the editor of " The Journal,'' that I am the 
author of certain articles in that paper which you deem personally 
abusive of you ; and without stopping to inquire whether I really 
am the author, or to point out what is offensive in them, you 
demand an unqualified retraction of all that is offensive, and then 
proceed to hint at consequences. 

Now, sir, there is in this so much assumption of facts and so much 
of menace as to consequences, that I cannot submit to answer that 
note any further than I have, and to add that the consequences to 
which I suppose you allude would be matter of as great regret to 
me as it possibly could to you. Respectfully, 

A. Lincoln. 



Tremont, September 17, 1842. 
A. Lincoln, Esq. : In reply to my note of this date, you intimate 
that I assume facts and menace consequences, and that you cannot 
submit to answer it further. As now, sir, you desire it, I will be a 
little more particular. The editor of "The Sangamon Journal" 
gave me to understand that you are the author of an article which 
appeared, I think, in that paper of the 2d September instant, headed 
" The Lost Townships," and signed Rebecca or 'Becca. I would there- 
fore take the liberty of asking whether you are the author of said 
article, or any other over the same signature which has appeared in 
any of the late numbers of that paper. If so, I repeat my request 



70 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of an absolute retraction of all offensive allusion contained therein 
in relation to my private character and standing. If you are not 
the author of any of these articles, your denial will be sufficient. I 
will say further, it is not my intention to menace, but to do myself 
justice. Your obedient servant, 

Jas. Shields. 



September 19, 1842. — Memorandum of Instructions to E. H. 
Merryman, Lincoln's Second. 

In case Whitesides shall signify a wish to adjust this affair with- 
out further difficulty, let him know that if the present papers be 
withdrawn, and a note from Mr. Shields asking to know if I am the 
author of the articles of which he complains, and asking that I shall 
make him gentlemanly satisfaction, if I am the author, and this 
without menace, or dictation as to what that satisfaction shall be, 
a pledge is made that the following answer shall be given : 

'*I did write the 'Lost Township^' letter which appeared in the 
' Journal ' of the 2d instant, but had no participation in any form in 
any other article alluding to you. I wrote that wholly for political 
effect — I had no intention of injuring your personal or private 
character or standing as a man or a gentleman ; and I did not then 
think, and do not now think, that that article could produce or has 
produced that effect against you; and had I anticipated such an 
effect I would have forborne to write it. And I will add that your 
conduct toward me, so far as I know, had always been gentlemanly; 
and that I had no personal pique against you, and no cause for any." 

If this should be done, I leave it with you to arrange what shall 
and what shall not be published. If nothing like this is done, the 
preliminaries of the fight are to be — 

First. Weapons : Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, pre- 
cisely equal in all respects, and such as now used by the cavalry 
company at Jacksonville. 

Secofid. Position : A plank ten feet long, and from nine to twelve 
inches broad, to be firmly fixed on edge, on the gi'ound, as the line 
between us, which neither is to pass his foot over upon forfeit of his 
life. Next a line drawn on the ground on either side of said plank 
and parallel with it, each at the distance of the whole length of the 
sword and three feet additional from the plank ; and the passing of 
his own such line by either party during the fight shall be deemed 
a surrender of the contest. 

Third. Time : On Thursday evening at five o'clock, if you can get 
it so ; but in no case to be at a greater distance of time than Friday 
evening at five o'clock. 

Fourth. Place : Within three miles of Alton, on the opposite side 
of the river, the particular spot to be agreed on by you. 

Any preliminary details coming within the above rules you are 
at liberty to make at your discretion ; but you are in no case to 
swerve from these rules, or to pass beyond their limits. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 71 



October [4?], 1842.— Letter to Joshua F. Speed. 

Springfield, October [4?], 1842. 

Dear Speed : You have heard of my duel with Shields, and I have 
now to inform you that the dueling business still rages in this city. 
Day before yesterday Shields challenged Butler, who accepted, and 
proposed fighting next morning at sunrise in Bob Allen's meadow, 
one hundred yards' distance, with rifles. To this Whitesides, Shields's 
second, said "No," because of the law. Thus ended duel No. 2. 
Yesterday Whitesides chose to consider himself insulted by Dr. 
Merry man, so sent him a kind of quasi-challenge, inviting him to 
meet him at the Planter's House in St. Louis on the next Friday, 
to settle their difficulty. Merryman made me his friend, and sent 
Whitesides a note, inquiring to know if he meant his note as a chal- 
lenge, and if so, that he would, according to the law in such case 
made and provided, prescribe the terms of the meeting. Whitesides 
returned for answer that if Merryman would meet him at the Plan- 
ter's House as desired, he would challenge him. Merryman replied 
in a note that he denied Whitesides's right to dictate time and 
place, but that he (Merryman) would waive the question of time, 
and meet him at Louisiana, Missouri. Upon my presenting this 
note to Whitesides and stating verbally its contents, he declined re- 
ceiving it, saying he had business in St. Louis, and it was as near as 
Louisiana. Merryman then directed me to notify Whitesides that 
he should publish the correspondence between them, with such com- 
ments as he thought fit. This I did. Thus it stood at bedtime last 
night. This morning Whitesides, by his friend Shields, is praying 
for a new trial, on the ground that he was mistaken in Merryman's 
proposition to meet him at Louisiana, Missouri, thinking it was the 
State of Louisiana. This Merryman hoots at, and is preparing his 
publication ; while the town is in a ferment, and a street fight 
somewhat anticipated. 

But I began this letter not for what I have been writing, but to 
say something on that subject which you know to be of such infi- 
nite solicitude to me. The immense sufferings you endured from 
the first days of September till the middle of February you never 
tried to conceal from me, and I well understood. You have now 
been the husband of a lovely woman nearly eight months. That 
you are happier now than the day you married her I well know, for 
without you could not be living. But I have your word for it, too, 
and the returning elasticity of spirits which is manifested in your 
letters. But I want to ask a close question, "Are you now in feel- 
ing as well as judgment glad that you are married as you are?" 
From anybody but me this would be an impudent question, not to 
be tolerated ; but I know you will pardon it in me. Please answer 
it quickly, as I am impatient to know. I have sent my love to your 
Fanny so often, I fear she is getting tired of it. However, I venture 
to tender it again. Yours forever, 

Lincoln. 



72 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



March 1, 1843.— Resolutions at a Whig Meeting at 
Springfield, Illinois. 

The object of the meeting was stated by Mr. Lincoln of Spring- 
field, who offered the following resolutions, which were unanimously 
adopted : 

Resolved, That a tariff of duties on imported goods, producing sufficient 
revenue for the payment of the necessary expenditures of the National Gov- 
ernment, and so adjusted as to protect American industry, is indispensably 
necessary to the prosperity of the American people. 

Resolved, That we are opposed to direct taxation for the support of the 
National Government. 

Resolved, That a national bank, properly restricted, is highly necessary and 
proper to the establishment and makitenance of a sound currency, and for 
the cheap and safe collection, keeping, and disbursing of the public revenue. 

Resolved, That the distribution of the proceeds of the sales of the pubUc 
lands, upon the principles of Mr. Clay's bill, accords with the best interests 
of the nation, and particularly with those of the State of Ilhnois. 

Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each congressional district 
of the State, to nominate and support at the approaching election a candi- 
date of their own principles, regardless of the chances of success. 

Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of all portions of the State to 
adopt and rigidly adhere to the convention system of nominating candidates. 

Resolved, That we recommend to the Whigs of each congressional district 
to hold a district convention on or before the first Monday of May next, to be 
composed of a number of delegates from each county equal to double the 
number of its representatives in the General Assembly, provided, each county 
shall have at least one delegate. Said delegates to be chosen by primary 
meetings of the Whigs, at such times and places as they in their respective 
counties may see fit. Said district conventions each to nominate one candi- 
date for Congress, and one delegate to a National Convention for the purpose 
of nominating candidates for President and Vice-President of the United 
States. The seven delegates so nominated to a national convention to have 
power to add two delegates to their own number, and to fill all vacancies. 

Resolved, That A. T. Bledsoe, S. T. Logan, and A. Lincoln be appointed a 
committee to prepare an address to the people of the State. 

Resolved, That N. W. Edwards, A. G. Henry, James H. Matheny, John C. 
Doremus, and James C. Conkling be appointed a Whig Central State Com- 
mittee, with authority to fill any vacancy that may occur in the committee. 



March 4, 1843.— Circular from Whig Committee. 
Address to the People of TlUnois. 

Fellow-citizens : By a resolution of a meeting of such of the Whigs 
of the State as are now at Springfield, we, the undersigned, were ap- 
pointed to prepare an address to you. The performance of that task 
we now undertake. 

Several resolutions were adopted by the meeting ; and the chief 
object of this address is to show briefly the reasons for their adoption. 

The first of those resolutions declares a tariff of duties upon for- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 73 

eign importations, producing sufficient revenue for tlie support of 
the General Government, and so adjusted as to protect American 
industry, to be indispensably necessary to the prosperity of the 
American people ; and the second declares direct taxation for a na- 
tional revenue to be improper. Those two resolutions are kindred 
in their nature, and therefore proper and convenient to be considered 
together. The question of protection is a subject entirely too broad 
to be crowded into a few pages only, together with several other 
subjects. On that point we therefore content ourselves with giving 
the following exti'acts from the writings of Mr. Jefferson, General 
Jackson, and the speech of Mr. Calhoun : 

To be independent for the comforts of life, we must fabricate them our- 
selves. We must now place the manufacturer by the side of the agiiculturalist. 
The grand inquiry now is, Shall we make our own comforts, or go without 
them at the will of a foreign nation 1 He, therefore, who is now against do- 
mestic manufactures must be for reducing us either to dependence on that 
foreign nation, or to be clothed in skins and to live like wild beasts in dens 
and caverns. I am not one of those ; experience has taught me that manu- 
factures are now as necessary to our independence as to our comfoi't. — 
Letter of Mr. Jefferson to Benjamin Austin. 

I ask. What is the real situation of the agriculturalist ? Where has the 
American farmer a market for his surplus produce? Except for cotton, he 
has neither a foreign nor a home market. Does not this clearly prove, when 
there is no market at home or abroad, that there [is] too much labor em- 
ployed in agi'icultiu-e ? Common sense at once points out the remedy. Take 
from agriculture six hundred thousand men, women, and children, and you 
wiU at once give a market for more breadstuffs than aU Europe now fur- 
nishes. In short, we have been too long subject to the policy of British 
merchants. It is time we should become a Httle more Americanized, and 
instead of feeding the paujiers and laborers of England, feed our own ; or 
else in a short time, by continuing our present policy, we shall aU be ren- 
dered paupers ourselves. — General Jackson'' s Letter to Dr. Coleman. 

When our manufactures are grown to a certain perfection, as they soon 
will be, under the fostering care of government, the farmer will find a ready 
market for his surplus produce, and — what is of equal consequence — a cer- 
tain and cheap supply of aU he wants ; his prosperity will diffuse itself to 
every class of the community.— Speech of Hon. J. C. Calhoun on the Tariff. 

The question of revenue we will now briefly consider. For 
several years past the revenues of the government have been un- 
equal to its expenditures, and consequently loan after loan, some- 
times direct and sometimes indirect in form, has been resorted to. 
By this means a new national debt has been created, and is still 
growing on us with a rapidity fearful to contemplate — a rapidity 
only reasonably to be expected in time of war. This state of things 
hasbeeu produced by a prevailing unwillingness either to increase 
the tariff or resort to direct taxation. But the one or the other 
must come. Coming expenditures must be met, and the present 
debt must be paid; and money cannot always be borrowed for 
these objects. The system of loans is but temporary in its nature, 
and must soon explode. It is a system not only ruinous while it 
lasts, but one that must soon fail and leave us destitute. As an in- 



74 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

dividual who undertakes to live by borrowing soon finds his orig- 
inal means devoured by interest, and, next, no one left to borrow 
from, so must it be with a government. 

"We repeat, then, that a tariff sufficient for revenue, or a direct 
tax, must soon be resorted to ; and, indeed, we believe this alterna- 
tive is now denied by no one. But which system shall be adopted ? 
Some of our opponents, in theory, admit the propriety of a tariff 
sufficient for a revenue ; but even they will not in practice vote for 
such a tariff; while others boldly advocate direct taxation. Inas- 
much, therefore, as some of them boldly advocate direct taxation, 
and all the rest — or so nearly all as to make exceptions needless — 
refuse to adopt the tariff, we think it is doing them no injustice to 
class them all as advocates of direct taxation. Indeed, we believe 
they are only delaying an open avowal of the system tiU they can 
assure themselves that the people will tolerate it. Let us, then, 
briefly compare the two systems. The tariff is the cheaper system, 
because the duties, being collected in large parcels at a few commer- 
cial points, will require comparatively few officers in their collec- 
tion ; while by the direct-tax system the land must be literally 
covered with assessors and collectors, going forth like swarms of 
Egyptian locusts, devouring every blade of grass and other green 
thing. And, again, by the tariff system the whole revenue is paid 
by the consumers of foreign goods, and those chiefly the luxuries, 
and not the necessaries, of life. By this system the man who con- 
tents himself to live upon the products of his own country pays 
nothing at all. And surely that country is extensive enough, and its 
products abundant and varied enough, to answer aU the real wants 
of its people. In short, by this system the burthen of revenue falls 
almost entirely on the wealthy and luxurious few, while the sub- 
stantial and laboring many who live at home, and upon home prod- 
ucts, go entirely free. By the direct tax system none can escape. 
However strictly the citizen may exclude from his premises all foreign 
luxuries, — fine cloths, fine silks, rich wines, golden chains, and dia- 
mond rings, — still, for the possession of his house, his barn, and his 
homespun, he is to be perpetually haunted and harassed by the tax- 
gatherer. With these views we leave it to be determined whether 
we or our opponents are the more truly democratic on the subject. 

The third resolution declares the necessity and propriety of a 
national bank. During the last fifty years so much has been said 
and written both as to the constitutionality and expediency of such 
an institution, that we could not hope to improve in the least on 
former discussions of the subject, were we to undertake it. We, 
therefore, upon the question of constitutionality content ourselves 
with remarking the facts that the first national bank was estab- 
lished chiefly by the same men who formed the Constitution, at a 
time when that instrument was but two years old, and receiving 
the sanction, as president, of the immortal Washington ; that the 
second received the sanction, as president, of Mr. Madison, to whom 
common consent has awarded the proud title of " Father of the Con- 
stitution"; and subsequently the sanction of the Supreme Court, 
the most enlightened judicial tribunal in the world. Upon the 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN /O 

question of expediency, we only ask you to examine the history of 
the times during the existence of the two banks, and compare those 
times with the miserable present. 

The fourth resolution declares the expediency of Mr. Clay's Land 
Bill. Much incomprehensible jargon is often used against the con- 
stitutionality of this measure. We forbear, in this place, attempt- 
ing an answer to it, simply because, in om* opinion, those who urge 
it are through party zeal resolved not to see or acknowledge the 
truth. The question of expediency, at least so far as Illinois is con- 
cerned, seems to us the clearest imaginable. By the bill we are to 
receive annually a large sum of money, no part of which we other- 
wise receive. The precise annual sum cannot be known in advance; it 
doubtless will vary in different years. Still it is something to know 
that in the last year — a year of almost unparalleled pecuniary press- 
ure — it amounted to more than forty thousand dollars. This an- 
nual income, in the midst of our almost insupportable difficulties, 
in the days of our severest necessity, our political opponents 
are furiously resolving to take and keep from us. And for what ? 
Many silly reasons are given, as is usual in cases where a single 
good one is not to be found. One is that by giving us the pro- 
ceeds of the lands, we impoverish the national treasury, and thereby 
render necessary an increase of the tariff. This may be true ; but 
if so, the amount of it only is that those whose pride, whose abund- 
ance of means, prompt them to spurn the manufactures of oui* 
country, and to strut in British cloaks and coats and pantaloons, 
may have to pay a few cents more on the yard for the cloth that 
makes them. A terrible evil, truly, to the Illinois farmer, who 
never wore, nor ever expects to wear, a single yard of British goods 
in his whole life. Another of their reasons is that by the passage 
and continuance of Mr. Clay's bill, we prevent the passage of a bill 
which would give us more. This, if it were sound in itself, is wag- 
ing destructive war with the former position ; for if Mr. Clay's bill 
impoverishes the treasury too much, what shall be said of one that 
impoverishes it still more f But it is not sound in itself. It is not 
true that Mr. Clay's biU prevents the passage of one more favorable 
to us of the new States. Considering the strength and opposite in- 
terest of the old States, the wonder is that they ever permitted one 
to pass so favorable as Mr. Clay's. The last twenty-odd years' ef- 
forts to reduce the price of the lands, and to pass graduation bills and 
cession bills, prove the assertion to be true ; and if there were no 
experience in support of it, the reason itself is plain. The States in 
which none, or few, of the public lands lie, and those consequently 
interested against parting with them except for the best price, are 
the majority ; and a moment's reflection will show that they must 
ever continue the majority, because by the time one of the original 
new States (Ohio, for example) becomes populous and gets weight in 
Congress, the public lands in her limits are so nearly sold out that 
in every point material to this question she becomes an old State. 
She does not wish the price reduced, because there is none left for 
her citizens to buy ; she does not wish them ceded to the States in 
which they lie, because they no longer lie in her limits, and she will 



76 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

get nothing by the cession. In the nature of things, the States in- 
terested in the reduction of price, in graduation, in cession, and in 
all similar projects, never can be the majority. Nor is there reason 
to hope that any of them can ever succeed as a Democratic party 
measure, because we have heretofore seen that party in full power, 
year after year, with many of their leaders making loud professions 
in favor of these projects, and yet doing nothing. What reason, 
then, is there to believe they will hereafter do better? In every 
light in which we can view this question, it amounts simply to this: 
Shall we accept our share of the proceeds under Mr. Clay's bill, or 
shall we rather reject that and get nothing? 

The fifth resolution recommends that a Whig candidate for Con- 
gress be run in every district, regardless of the chances of success. 
We are aware that it is sometimes a temporary gratification, when 
a friend cannot succeed, to be able to choose between opponents ; 
but we believe that that gratification is the seed-time which never 
fails to be followed by a most abundant harvest of bitterness. By 
this policy we entangle ourselves. By voting for our opponents, such 
of us as do it in some measure estop ourselves to complain of their 
acts, however glaringly wrong we m.ay believe them to be. By this 
policy no one portion of our friends can ever be certain as to what 
course another portion may adopt; and by this want of mutual 
and perfect understanding our political identity is partially frittered 
away and lost. And, again, those who are thus elected by our aid 
ever become our bitterest persecutors. Take a few prominent ex- 
amples. In 1830 Reynolds was so elected governor; in 1835 we 
exerted our whole strength to elect Judge Young to the United 
States Senate, which effort, though failing, gave him the promi- 
nence that subsequently elected him; in 1836 General Ewing was 
so elected to the United States Senate ; and 3'et let us ask what three 
men have been more perseveringly vindictive in their assaults upon 
all our men and measures than they? During the last summer the 
whole State was covered with pamphlet editions of misrepresenta- 
tions against us, methodized into chapters and verses, written by 
two of these same men, — Reynolds and Young, — in which they did 
not stop at charging us with error merel}^, but roundly denounced 
us as the designing enemies of human liberty itself. If it be 
the will of Heaven that such men shall politically live, be it so ; 
but never, never again permit them to draw a particle of their sus- 
tenance from us. 

The sixth resolution recommends the adoption of the convention 
system for the nomination of candidates. This we believe to be of 
the very first importance. Whether the system is right in itself we 
do not stop to inquire; contenting ourselves with trying to show 
that while our opponents nse it, it is madness in us not to defend our- 
selves with it. Experience has shown that we cannot successfully 
defend ourselves without it. For examples, look at the elections of 
last year. Our candidate for governor, with the approbation of a 
large portion of the party, took the field without a nomination, and 
in open opposition to the system. Wherever in the counties the 
Whigs had held conventions and nominated candidates for the legis- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 77 

lature, the aspirants who were not nominated were induced to rebel 
against the nominations, and to become candidates, as is said, ^' on 
their own hook." And, go where you would into a large Whig 
county, you were sure to find the Whigs not contending shoulder 
to shoulder against the common enemy, but divided into factions, 
and fighting furiously with one another. The election came, and 
what was the result? The governor beaten — the Whig vote being 
decreased many thousands since 1840, although the Democratic vote 
had not increased any. Beaten almost everywhere for members of 
the legislature, — Tazewell, with her four hundred Whig majority, 
sending a delegation liaK Democratic; Vermillion, with her five 
hundred, doing the same; Coles, with her four hundred, sending 
two out of three; and Morgan, with her two hundred and fifty, 
sending three out of four, — and this to say nothing of the numer- 
ous other less glaring examples ; the whole winding up with the ag- 
gregate number of twenty-seven Democratic representatives sent 
from Whig counties. As to the senators, too, the result was of the 
same character. And it is most worthy to be remembered that of 
all the Whigs in the State who ran against the regular nominees, a 
single one only was elected. Although they succeeded in defeating 
the nominees almost by scores, they too were defeated, and the spoils 
chucklingly borne off by the common enemy ? 

We do not mention the fact of many of the Whigs opposing tlie 
convention system heretofore for the purpose of censuring them. 
Far from it. We expressly protest against such a conclusion. We 
know they were generally, perhaps universally, as good and true 
Whigs as we ourselves claim to be. We mention it merely to draw 
attention to the disastrous result it produced, as an example forever 
hereafter to be avoided. That '' union is strength " is a truth that 
has been known, illustrated, and declared in various wavs and forms 
in all ages of the world. That great fabulist and philosopher, ^sop, 
illustrated it by his fable of the bundle of sticks; and he whose 
wisdom surpasses that of all philosophers has declared that ^'a house 
divided against itself cannot stand." It is to induce our friends to 
act upon this important and universally acknowledged truth that 
we urge the adoption of the convention system. Reflection will 
prove that there is no other way of practically applying it. In its 
application we know there will be incidents temporarily painful; but, 
after all, those incidents will be fewer and less intense with than with- 
out the system. If two friends aspire to the same office it is certain 
that both cannot succeed. Would it not, then, be much less painful 
to have the question decided by mutual friends some time before, 
than to snarl and quarrel until the day of election, and then both be 
beaten by the common enemy ? 

Before leaving this subject, we think proper to remark that we do 
not understand the resolution as intended to recommend the appli- 
cation of the convention system to the nomination of candidates for 
the small offices no way connected with politics; though we must 
say we do not perceive that such an application of it would he 
wrong. 

The seventh resolution recommends the holding of district con- 



78 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ventions in May next, for the purpose of nominating candidates for 
Congress. The propriety of this rests upon the same reasons with 
that of the sixth, and therefore needs no further discussion. 

The eighth and ninth also relate merely to the practical applica- 
tion of the foregoing, and therefore need no discussion. 

Before closing, permit us to add a few reflections on the present 
condition and future prospects of the Whig party. In almost all 
the States we have fallen into the minority, and despondency seems 
to prevail universally among us. Is there just cause for this ? In 
1840 we carried the nation by more than a hundred and forty thou- 
sand majority. Our opponents charged that we did it by fraudulent 
voting ; but whatever they may have believed, we know the charge 
to be untrue. Where, now, is that mighty host ? Have they gone 
over to the enemy? Let the results of the late elections answer. 
Every State which has fallen off from the Whig cause since 1840 
has done so not by giving more Democratic votes than they did 
then, but by giving fewer Whig. Bouck, who was elected Demo- 
cratic governor of New York last fall by more than 15,000 majority, 
had not then as many votes as he had in 1840, when he was beaten 
by seven or eight thousand. And so has it been in all the other 
States which have fallen away from our cause. From this it is evi- 
dent that tens of thousands in the late elections have not voted at 
all. Who and what are they ? is an important question, as respects 
the future. They can come forward and give us the victory again. 
That all, or nearly all, of them are Whigs is most apparent. Our 
opponents, stung to madness by the defeat of 1840, have ever since 
rallied with more than their usual unanimity. It has not been they 
that have been kept from the polls. These facts show what the re- 
sult must be, once the people again rally in their entire strength. 
Proclaim these facts, and predict this result; and although unthink- 
ing opponents may smile at us, the sagacious ones will " believe and 
tremble." And why shall the Whigs not all rally again? Are their 
principles less dear now than in 1840? Have any of their doctrines 
since then been discovered to be untrue? It is true, the victory of 
1840 did not produce the happy results anticipated ; but it is equally 
true, as we believe, that the unfortunate death of General Harrison 
was the cause of the failure. It was not the election of General 
Harrison that was expected to produce happy effects, but the mea- 
sures to be adopted by his administration. By means of his death, 
and the unexpected course of his successor, those measures were 
never adopted. How could the fruits follow ? The consequences 
we always predicted would follow the failure of those measm*es have 
followed, and are now upon us in all their horrors. By the course 
of Mr. Tyler the policy of our opponents has continued in operation, 
still leaving them with the advantage of charging all its evils upon 
us as the results of a Whig administration. Let none be deceived 
by this somewhat plausible, though entirely false charge. If they 
ask us for tlie sufficient and sound currency we promised, let them 
be answered that we only promised it through the medium of a na- 
tional bank, which they, aided by Mr. Tyler, prevented our estab- 
lishing. And let them be reminded, too, that their own policy in 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN 79 

relation to the currency has all the time been, and still is, in full op- 
eration. Let us then again come forth in our might, and by a sec- 
ond victory accomplish that which death only prevented in the first. 
We can do it. When did the Whigs ever fail if they were fully 
aroused and united? Even in single States and districts, under 
such circumstances, defeat seldom overtakes them. Call to mind 
the contested elections within the last few years, and particularly 
those of Moore and Letcher from Kentucky, Newland and Graham 
from North Carolina, and the famous New Jersey case. In all 
these districts Locofocoism had stalked omnipotent before; but 
when the whole people were aroused by its enormities on those oc- 
casions, they put it down never to rise again. 

We declare it to be our solemn conviction, that the Whigs are al- 
ways a majority of this nation ; and that to make them always suc- 
cessful needs but to get them all to the polls and to vote unitedly. 
This is the great desideratum. Let us make every effort to attain 
it. At every election, let every Whig act as though he knew the 
result to depend upon his action. In the great contest of 1840, 
some more than twenty-one hundred thousand votes were cast, and 
so surely as there shall be that many, with the ordinary increase 
added, cast in 1844, that surely will a Whig be elected President of 
the United States. 

A. Lincoln, 
S. T. Logan, 

March 4, 1843. A. T. Bledsoe. 



March 24, 1843.— Letter to Joshua F. Speed. 

Springfield, March 24, 1843. 
Dear Speed: . . . We had a meeting of the Whigs of the countj' 
here on last Monday to appoint delegates to a district convention ; 
and Baker beat me, and got the delegation instructed to go for him. 
The meeting, in spite of my attempt to decline it, appointed me one 
of the delegates ; so that in getting Baker the nomination I shall be 
fixed a good deal like a fellow who is made a groomsman to a man 
that has cut him out and is marrying his own dear '' gal." About 
the prospects of your having a namesake at our town, can't say ex- 
actly yet. 

A. Lincoln. 



March 26, 1843. — Letter to Martin M. Morris. 

Springfield, Illinois, March 26, 1843. 
Friend Morris : Your letter of the 23d was received on yesterday 
morning, and for which (instead of an excuse, which you thought 
proper to ask) I tender you my sincere thanks. It is truly gratify- 
ing to me to learn that while the people of Sangamon have cast me 
off, my old friends of Menard, who have known me longest and 



80 ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

best, stick to me. It would astonish, if not amuse, the older citi- 
zens to learn that I (a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless 
boy, "working on a flatboat at ten dollars per month) have been put 
down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family- 
distinction. Yet so, chiefly, it was. There was, too, the strangest 
combination of church influence against me. Baker is a Campbell- 
ite ; and therefore, as I suppose, with few exceptions got all that 
church. My wife has some relations in the Presbyterian churches, 
and some with the Episcopal churches ; and therefore, wherever it 
would tell, I was set down as either the one or the other, while it 
was everywhere contended that no Christian ought to go for me, be- 
cause I belonged to no church, was suspected of being a deist, and 
had talked about fighting a duel. With all these things, Baker, of 
course, had nothing to do. Nor do I complain of them. As to his 
own church going for him, I think that was right enough, and as to 
the influences I have spoken of in the other, though the^^ were very 
strong, it would be grossly untrue and unjust to charge that they 
acted upon them in a body, or were very near so. I only mean 
that those influences levied a tax of a considerable per cent, upon 
my strength throughout the religious controversy. But enough of 
this. 

You say that in choosing a candidate for Congress you have an 
equal right with Sangamon, and in this you are undoubtedly cor- 
rect. In agreeing to withdraw if the Whigs of Sangamon should go 
against me, I did not mean that they alone were worth consulting, 
but that if she, with her heavy delegation, should l)e against me, it 
would be impossible for me to succeed, and therefore I had as well 
decline. And in relation to Menard having rights, permit me fully 
to recognize them, and to express the opinion, that if she and Mason 
act circumspectly, they will in the convention be able so far to en- 
force their rights as to decide absolutely which one of the candidates 
shall be successful. Let me show the reason of this. Hardin, or 
some other Morgan candidate, will get Putnam, Marshall, Wood- 
ford, Tazewell, and Logan — making sixteen. Then you and Mason, 
having three, can give the victory to either side. 

You say you shall instruct your delegates for me, unless I object. 
I certainly shall not object. That would be too pleasant a compli- 
ment for me to tread in the dust. And besides, if anything should 
happen (which, however, is not probable) by which Baker should be 
thrown out of the fight, I would be at liberty to accept the nomina- 
tion if I could get it. I do, however, feel myself bound not to hin- 
der him in any way from getting the nomination. I should despise 
myself were I to attempt it. I think, then, it would be proper for 
your meeting to appoint three delegates, and to instruct them to go 
for some one as a first choice, some one else as a second, and per- 
haps some one as a third ; and if in those instructions I were named 
as the first choice, it would gratify me very much. If you wish to 
hold the balance of power, it is important for you to attend to and 
secure the vote of Mason also. You should be sure to have men 
appointed delegates that you know you can safely confide in. If 
yourself and James Short were appointed from your county, all 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 81 

would be safe ; but whether Jim's woman affair a year ago might 
not be in the way of his appointment is a question. I don't know 
whether you know it, but I know him to be as honorable a man as 
there is in the world. You have my permission, and even request, 
to show this letter to Short ; but to no one else, unless it be a very 
particular friend, who you know will not speak of it. 

Yours as ever, A. Lincoln. 

P. S. Will you write me again ? 

To Martin M. Morris, Petersburg, Illinois. 



April 14, 1843.— Letter to Martin M. Morris. 

April 14, 1843. 
Friend Morris : I have heard it intimated that Baker has been at- 
tempting to get you or Miles, or both of you, to violate the instruc- 
tions of the meeting that appointed you, and to go for him. I have 
insisted, and still insist, that this cannot be true. Surely Baker 
would not do the like. As well might Hardin ask me to vote for 
him in the convention. Again, it is said there will be an attempt to 
get up instructions in your county requiring you to go for Baker. 
This is all wrong. Upon the same rule, why might not I fly from 
the decision against me in Sangamon, and get up instructions to their 
delegates to go for me ! There are at least 1200 Whigs in the county 
that took no part, and yet I would as soon put my head in the fire 
as to attempt it. Besides, if any one should get the nomination by 
such extraordinary means, all harmony in the district would inevita- 
bly be lost. Honest Whigs (and very nearly all of them are honest) 
would not quietly abide such enormities. I repeat, such an attempt 
on Baker's part cannot be true. Write me at Springfield how the 
matter is. Don't show or speak of this letter. 

A. Lincoln. 



May 18, 1843. — Letter to Joshua F. Speed. 

Springfield, May 18, 1843. 

Dear Speed : Yours of the 9th instant is duly received, which I do 
not meet as a "bore," but as a most welcome visitor. I will ansjver 
the business part of it first. . . . 

In relation to our Congress matter here, you were right in sup- 
posing I would support the nominee. Neither Baker nor I, however, 
is the man, but Hardin, so far as I can judge from present appear- 
ances. We shall have no split or trouble about the matter; all will 
be harmony. In relation to the " coming events" about which But- 
ler wrote you, I had not heard one word before I got your letter ; 
but I have so much confidence in the judgment of a Butler on such 
a subject that I incline to think there may be some reality in it. 
What day does Butler appoint? By the way, how do "events" of 
Vol. L— 6. 



82 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the same sort come on in your family? Are you possessing houses 
and lands, and oxen and asses, and men-servants and maid-servants, 
and begetting sons and daughters? We are not keeping house, but 
boarding at the Globe Tavern, which is very well kept now by a 
widow lady of the name of Beck. Our room (the same that Dr. 
Wallace occupied there) and boarding only costs us four dollars a 
week. Ann Todd was married something more than a year since to 
a fellow by the name of Campbell, and who, Mary says, is pretty 
much of a "dunce," though he has a little money and property. 
They live in Boonville, Missouri, and have not been heard from 
lately enough for me to say anything about her health. I reckon it 
will scarcely be in our power to visit Kentucky this year. Besides 
poverty and the necessity of attending to business, those "coming 
events," I suspect, would be somewhat in the way. I most heartily 
wish you and your Fanny would not fail to come. Just let us know 
the time, and we will have a room provided for you at our house, and 
all be merry together for a while. Be sure to give my respects to 
your mother and family ; assure her that if ever I come near her, I 
will not fail to call and see her, Mary joins in sending love to your 
Fanny and you. Yours as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 



November 17, 1845. — Letter to B. F. James. 

Springfield, November 17, 1845. 

Friend James : The paper at Pekin has nominated Hardin for 
governor; and, commenting on this, the Alton paper indirectly 
nominated him for Congress. It would give Hardin a great start, 
and perhaps use me up, if the Whig papers of the district should 
nominate him for Congress. If your feelings toward me are the 
same as when I saw you (which I have no reason to doubt), I wish 
you would let nothing appear in your paper which may operate 
against me. You understand. Matters stand just as they did when 
I saw you. Baker is certainly off the track, and I fear Hardin in- 
tends to be on it. 

In relation to the business you wrote me of some time since, I sup- 
pose the marshal called on you ; and we think it can be adjusted at 
court to the satisfaction of you and friend Thompson. 

A. Lincoln. 



November 24, 1845. — Letter to B. F. Jaivies. 

Springfield, November 24, 1845. 
Friend James : Yours of the 19th was not received till this morn- 
ing. The error I fell into in relation to the Pekin paper I dis- 
covered myself the day after I wrote you. The way I fell into it 
was that Stuart (John T.) met me in the court, and told me about a 
nomination having been made in the Pekin paper, and about the 
comments upon it in the Alton paper; and without seeing either 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 83 

paper myself, I wrote you. In writing to you, I only meant to 
caU your attention to the matter ; and that done, I knew all would 
be right with you. Of course I should not have thought this 
necessary if at the time I had known that the nomination had 
been made in your paper. And let me assure you that if there is 
anything in my letter indicating an opinion that the nomination for 
governor, which I supposed to have been made in the Pekin paper, 
was operating or could operate against me, such was not my mean- 
ing. Now that I know that nomination was made by you, I say that 
it may do me good, while I do not see that it can do me harm. But, 
while the subject is in agitation, should any of the papers in the dis- 
trict nominate the same man for Congress, that would do me harm; 
and it was that which I wished to guard against. Let me assure you 
that I do not for a moment suppose that what you have done is ill- 
judged, or that anything that you shall do will be. It was not to 
object to the course of the Pekin paper (as I thought it), but to 
guard against any falKng into the wake of the Alton paper, that I 
wrote. 

You perhaps have noticed the "Journal's" article of last week 
upon the same subject. It was written without any consultation 
with me, but I was told by Francis of its purport before it was pub- 
lished. I chose to let it go as it was, lest it should be suspected that 
I was attempting to juggle Hardiu out of a nomination for Con- 
gress by juggling him into one for governor. If you, and the other 
papers a little more distant from me, choose to take the same course 
you have, of course I have no objection. After you shall have re- 
ceived this, I think we shall fully understand each other, and that 
our views as to the effect of these things are not dissimilar. Confi- 
dential, of course. Yours as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 



January 14, 1846. — Letter to B. F. Jai^ies. 

Springfield, January 14, 1846, 
Friend James : Yours of the 10th was not received until this 
morning. I cannot but be pleased with its contents. I saw Henry's 
communication in your paper, as also your editorial remarks, 
neither of which, in my opinion, was in any way misjudged, — both 
quite the thing. I think just as you do concerning the dictation of 
the course of the Alton paper, and also concerning its utter harm- 
lessness. As to the proposition to hold the convention at Peters- 
burg, I will at once teU you all I know and all I feel. A good friend 
of ours there — John Bennett — wrote me that he thought it would 
do good with the Whigs of Menard to see a respectable convention 
conducted in good style. They are a little disinclined to adopt the 
convention system ; and Bennett thinks some of their prejudices 
would be done away by their having the convention amongst them. At 
his request, therefore, I had the little paragraph put in the '^ Journal." 
This is all I know. Now as to what I feel. I feel a desire that they 
of Petersburg should be gratified, if it can be done without a sacri- 



84 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

fice of the wishes of others, and without detriment to the cause — no- 
thing more. I can gain nothing in the contest by having it there. I 
showed your letter to Stuart, and he thinks there is something in 
your suggestion of holding it at yom* town. I should be pleased if 
I could concur with you in the hope that my name would be the 
only one presented to the convention ; but I cannot. Hardin is a 
man of desperate energy and perseverance, and one that never backs 
out ; and, I fear, to think otherwise is to be deceived in the charac- 
ter of our adversary'. I would rejoice to be spared the labor of a 
contest ; but *' being in," I shall go it thoroughly, and to the bottom. 
As to my being able to make a break in the lower counties, I tell 
you that I can possibly get Cass, but I do not think I will. Morgan 
and Scott are beyond mj'^ reach; Menard is safe to me; Mason, 
neck and neck ; Logan is mine. To make the matter sure, your en- 
tire senatorial district must be secured. Of this I suppose Tazewell 
is safe; and I have much done in both the other counties. In 
Woodford I have Davenport, Simons, Willard, Bracken, Peny, 
Travis, Dr. Hazzard, and the Clarks and some others, all specially 
committed. At Lacon, in Marshall, the very most active friend I 
have in the district (if I except yourself) is at work. Through him 
I have procured their names, and wi'itten to three or four of the 
most active Whigs in each precinct of the county. Still I wish you 
all in Tazewell to keep your eyes continually on Woodford and 
Marshall. Let no opportunity of making a mark escape. When 
they shall be safe, all will be safe, I think. 

The Beardstown paper is entirely in the hands of my friends. 
The editor is a Whig, and personally dislikes Hardin. When the 
Supreme Court shall adjourn (which it is thought will be about the 
15th of February), it is my intention to take a quiet trip through 
the towns and neighborhoods of Logan County, Delevau, Tremont, 
and on to and through the upper counties. Don't speak of this, or 
let it relax any of yom* vigilance. When I shall reach Tremont, we 
will talk over everything at large. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 



January 16, 184G.— Letter to B. F. James. 

Springfield, January 16, 1846. 
Dear James: A plan is on 'foot to change the mode of selecting 
the candidate fortius district. The movement is intended to injure 
me, and, if effected, most likely would injure me to some extent. I 
have not time to give particulars now; but I want you to let nothing 
prevent your getting an article in your paper of this week, taking 
strong ground for the old system under which Hardin and Baker 
were nominated, without seeming to know or suspect that any one 
desires to change it. I have written Dr. Henry more at length, and 
he will probably call and consult with you on getting up the article; 
but whether he does or not, don't fail, on any account, to get it in 
this week. 

A. Lincoln. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 85 



January 27, 1846. — Letter to B. F. James. 

Springfield, January 27, 1846. 

Dear James: Yours, inclosing the article from the "Whig," is re- 
ceived. In my judgment, you have hit the matter exactly right. I 
believe it is too late to get the article in the '^Journal" of this week; 
but Dickinson will understand it just as well from your paper, know- 
ing as he does your position toward me. More than all, I wrf)te him 
at the same time I did you. As to suggestions for the committee, I 
would say appoint the convention for the first Monday of May. As 
to the place, I can hardly make a suggestion, so many points desiring 
it. I was at Petersburg Saturday and Sunday, and they are very 
anxious for it there. A friend has also written me desii'ing it at 
Beardstown. 

I would have the committee leave the mode of choosing delegates 
to the Whigs of the different counties, as may best suit them respec- 
tively. I would have them propose, for the sake of uniformity, that 
the delegates should all be instructed as to their man, and the dele- 
gation of each county should go as a unit. If, without this, some 
counties should send united delegations and others divided ones, it 
might make bad work. Also have it proposed that when the con- 
vention shall meet, if there shall be any absent delegates, the mem- 
bers present may fill the vacancies with persons to act under the 
same instructions which may be known to have been given to such 
absentees. You understand. Other particulars I leave to you. I 
am sorry to say I am afraid I cannot go to Mason, so as to attend to 
your business; but if I shall determine to go there, I v^dll write you. 

Do you hear anything from Woodford and Marshall ? Davenport, 
ten days ago, passed through here, and told me Woodford is safe; 
but, though in hope, I am not entirely easy about Marshall. I have 
so few personal acquaintances in that county that I cannot get at 
[it] right. Dickinson is doing all that any one man can do; but it 
seems like it is an overtask for one. I suppose Dr. Henry will be 
with you on Saturday. I got a letter from him to-day on the same 
subject as yours, and shall write him before Saturday. 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 

April 18, 1846. — Letter to Johnston. 

Tremont, April 18, 1846. 
Friend Johnston : Your letter, written some six weeks since, was 
received in due course, and also the paper with the parody. It is true, 
as suggested it might be, that I have never seen Poe's "Raven"; 
and I very well know that a parody is abnost entirely dependent for 
its interest upon the readei*'s acquaintance with the original. Still 
there is enough in the polecat, self-considered, to afford one several 
hearty laughs. I think four or five of the last stanzas are decidedly 
funny, particularly where Jeremiah "scrubbed and washed, and 
prayed and fasted." 



86 ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OP ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

I have not your letter now before me; but, from memory, I think 
you ask me who is the author of the piece I sent you, and that you 
do so ask as to indicate a slight suspicion that I myself am the author. 
Beyond all question, I am not the author. I would give all I am 
worth, and go in debt, to be able to write so fine a piece as I think 
that is. Neither do I know who is the author. I met it in a strag- 
gling form in a newspaper last summer, and I remember to have 
seen it once before, about fifteen years ago, and this is all I know 
about it. The piece of poetry of my own which I alluded to, I was 
led to write under the following circumstances. In the fall of 1844, 
thinking I might aid some to carry the State of Indiana for Mr. Clay, 
I went into the neighborhood in that State in which I was raised, 
where my mother and only sister were buried, and from which I had 
been absent about fifteen years. That part of the country is, within 
itself, as unpoetical as any spot of the earth; but still, seeing it and 
its objects and inhabitants aroused feelings in me which were cer- 
tainly poetry ; though whether my expression of those feelings is 
poetry is quite another question. When I got to writing, the change 
of subject divided the thing into four little divisions or cantos, the 
first only of which I send you now, and may send the others here- 
after. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

My childhood's home I see again, 

And sadden with the view; 
And still, as memory crowds my brain, 

There 's pleasure in it too. 

O Memory ! thou midway world 

'Twixt earth and paradise. 
Where things decayed and loved ones lost 

In dreamy shadows rise. 

And, freed from all that 's earthly vile, 
Seem hallowed, pure, and bright, 

Like scenes in some enchanted isle 
All bathed in liquid light. 

As dusky mountains please the eye 

When twilight chases day; 
As bugle-notes that, passing by. 

In distance die away; 

As leaving some grand waterfall, 

We, lingering, list its roar — 
So memory will hallow all 

We 've known, but know no more. 

Near twenty years have passed away 

Since here I bid farewell 
To woods and fields, and scenes of play, 

And playmates loved so well. 



ADDBESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN 87 

Where many were, but few remain 

Of old familiar things; 
But seeing them, to mind again 

The lost and absent brings. 

The friends I left that parting day, 

How changed, as time has sped ! 
Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray, 

And half of all are dead. 

I hear the loved survivors tell 

How nought from death could save. 

Till every sound appears a knell, 
And every spot a grave. 

I range the fields with pensive tread, 

And pace the hollow rooms, 
And feel (companion of the dead) 

I 'm living in the tombs. 



September 6, 1846. — Letter to Johnston. 

Springfield, September 6, 1846. 
Friend Johnston : You remember when I wrote you from Tremont 
last spring, sending you a little canto of what I called poetry, I 
promised to bore you with another some time. I now fulfil the 
promise. The subject of the present one is an insane man ; his name 
is Matthew G-entry. He is three years older than I, and when we 
were boys we went to school together. He was rather a bright lad, 
and the son of the rich man of a very poor neighborhood. At the 
age of nineteen he unaccountably became furiously mad, from which 
condition he gradually settled down into harmless insanity. When, 
as I told you in my other letter, I visited my old home in the fall of 
1844, I found him still lingering in this wretched condition. In my 
poetizing mood, I could not forget the impression his case made 
upon me. Here is the result. 

But here 's an object more of dread 
Than aught the grave contains — 

A human form with reason fled, 
While wretched life remains. 

When terror spread, and neighbors ran 
Your dangerous strength to bind. 

And soon, a howling, crazy man. 
Your limbs were fast confined : 

How then you strove and shrieked aloud, 

Your bones and sinews bared ; 
And fiendish on the gazing crowd 

With burning eyeballs glared ; 



5 ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

And begged and swore, and wept and prayed, 

With maniac laughter joined; 
How fearful were these signs displayed 

By pangs that killed the mind ! 

And when at length the dreai* and long 

Time soothed thy fiercer woes, 
How plaintively thy mournful song 

Upon the still night rose ! 

I 've heard it oft as if I dreamed, 

Far distant, sweet and lone, 
The funeral dirge it ever seemed 

Of reason dead and gone. 

To drink its strains I 've stole away, 

All stealthily and still, 
Ere yet the rising god of day 

Had streaked the eastern hill. 

Air held her breath ; trees with the spell 

Seemed sorrowing angels round. 
Whose swelling tears in dewdrops fell 

Upon the listening gTouud. 

But this is past, and naught remains 

That raised thee o'er the brute ; 
Thy piercing shrieks and soothing strain 

Ai'e like, forever mute. 

Now fare thee well ! More thou the cause 

Than subject now of woe. 
All mental pangs by time's kind laws 

Hast lost the power to know. 

O death ! thou awe-inspiring prince 

That keepst the world in fear, 
Why dost thou tear more blest ones hence. 

And leave him lingering here? 

If I should ever send another, the subject will be a " Bear-Hunt." 
Yours as ever, A. Lincoln. 



October 22, 1846.— Letter to Joshua F. Speed. 

Springfield, October 22, 1846. 

Bear Speed : . . . You, no doubt, assign the suspension of 

our correspondence to the true philosophic cause; though it must 

be confessed by both of us that this is rather a cold reason for 

allowing a friendship such as ours to die out by degrees. I propose 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 89 

now that, upon receipt of this, you shall be considered in my debt, 
and under obligations to pay soon, and that neither shall remain 
long in arrears hereafter. Are you agreed f 

Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our 
friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected. 

We have another boy, born the 10th of March. He is very much 
such a child as Bob was at his age, rather of a longer order. Bob 
is " short and low," and I expect always will be. He talks very 
plainly, — almost as plainly as anybody. He is quite smart enough. 
I sometimes fear that he is one of the little rare-ripe sort that are 
smarter at about five than ever after. He has a great deal of that 
sort of mischief that is the offspring of such animal spirits. Since 
I began this letter, a messenger came to tell me Bob was lost ; but 
by the time I reached the house his mother had found him and had 
him whipped, and by now, very likely, he is run away again. Mary 
has read your letter, and wishes to be remembered to Mrs. Speed 
and you, in which I most sincerely join her. As ever yours, 

A. Lincoln, 



February 25, 1847.— Letter to Johnston. 

Springfield, February 25, 1847. 

Bear Johnston: Yours of the 2d of December was duly delivered 
to me by Mr. Williams. To say the least, I am not at all displeased 
with your proposal to publish the poetry, or doggerel, or whatever 
else it may be called, which I sent you, I consent that it may be 
done, together with the third canto, which I now send you. 
Whether the prefatory remarks in my letter shall be published with 
the verses, I leave entirely to your discretion; but let names be sup- 
pressed by all means. I have not sufficient hope of the verses at- 
tracting any favorable notice to tempt me to risk being ridiculed 
for having wi'itten them. 

Why not drop into the paper, at the same time, the '^ haK dozen 
stanzas of your own " f Or if, for any reason, it suit your feelings 
better, send them to me, and I will take pleasure in putting them in 
the paper here. Family well, and nothing new. Yours sincerely, 

A, LmcoLN, 



[December 1, 1847!],— Fragments of Tariff Discussion. 

Whether the protective policy shall be finally abandoned is now 
the question. — Discussion and experience already had, and question 
now in greater dispute than ever. — Has there not been some great 
error in the mode of discussion? — Propose a single issue of fact, 
namely : From 1816 to the present, have protected articles cost us 
more of labor during the higher than during the lower duties upon 
them? — Introduce the evidence. — Analyze this issue, and try to 
show that it embraces the true and tlie whole question of the pro- 
tective policy. — Intended as a test of experience. — The period se- 



90 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

lected is fair, because it is a period of peace — a period sufficiently 
long [to] furnish a fair average under all other causes operating on 
prices, a period in which various modifications of higher and lower 
duties have occurred. — Protected articles only are embraced. Show 
that these only belong to the question. — The labor price only is em- 
braced. Show this to be correct. 



I suppose the true effect of duties upon prices to be as follows : If 
a certain duty be levied upon an article which by nature cannot be 
produced in this country, as three cents a pound upon coffee, the ef- 
fect will be that the consumer will pay one cent more per pound 
than before, the producer will take one cent less, and the merchant 
one cent less in profits ; in other words, the burden of the duty will 
[be] distributed over consumption, production, and commerce, and 
not confined to either. But if a duty amounting to full protection 
be levied upon an article which can be produced here with as little 
labor as elsewhere, — as iron, — that article will ultimately, and at no 
distant day, in consequence of such duty, be sold to our people 
cheaper than before, at least by the amount of the cost of carrying 
it from abroad. 

First. As to useless labor. Before proceeding, however, it may 
be as well to give a specimen of what I conceive to be useless labor. 
I say, then, that all carrying, and incidents of carrying, of articles 
from the place of their production to a distant place for consump- 
tion, which articles could be produced of as good quality, in suffi- 
cient quantity and with as little labor, at the place of consumption 
as at the place carried from, is useless labor. Applying this prin- 
ciple to our own country by an example, let us suppose that A and B 
are a Pennsylvania farmer and a Pennsylvania iron-maker whose 
lauds are adjoining. Under the protective policy A is furnishing B 
with bread and meat, and vegetables and fruits, and food for horses 
and oxen, and fresh supplies of horses and oxen themselves occa- 
sionally, and receiving in exchange all the iron, iron utensils, tools, 
and implements he needs. In this process of exchange each receives 
the whole of that which the other parts with, and the reward of la- 
bor between them is perfect — each receiving the product of just 
so much labor as he has himself bestowed on what he parts with for 
it. But the change comes. The protective policy is abandoned, 
and A determines to buy his iron and iron manufactures of C in 
Europe. This he can only do by a direct or an indirect exchange 
of the produce of his farm for them. We will suppose the direct 
exchange is adopted. In this A desires to exchange ten barrels of 
flour — the precise product of one hundi*ed days' labor — for the 
largest quantity of iron, etc., that he can get. C also wishes to ex- 
change the precise product, in iron, of one hundred days' labor for 
the greatest quantity of flour he can get. In intrinsic value the 
things to be so exchanged are precisely equal. But before this ex- 
change can take place, the flour must be carried from Pennsylvania 
to England, and the iron from England to Pennsj^lvania. The flour 
starts. The wagoner who hauls it to Philadelphia takes a part of it 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 91 

to pay him for his labor ; then a merchant there takes a little more 
for storage and forwarding commission, and another takes a little 
more for insurance ; and then the ship-owner carries it across the 
water, and takes a little more of it for his trouble. Still, before it 
reaches C, it is tolled two or three times more for storage, drayage, 
commission, and so on ; so that when C gets it there are but seven 
and a half barrels of it left. The iron, too, in its transit from Eng- 
land to Pennsylvania, goes through the same process of tolling ; so 
that when it reaches A there are but three quarters of it left. The 
result of this case is that A and C have each parted with one hun- 
dred days' labor, and each received but seventy-five in return. That 
the carrying in this case was introduced by A ceasing to buy of B 
and turning [to] C ; that it was utterly useless ; and that it is ruin- 
ous in its effects upon A, are all little less than self-evident. "But," 
asks one, *' if A is now only getting three quarters as much iron 
from C for ten barrels of flour as he used to get of B, why does he 
not turn back to B?" The answer is : ''B has quit making iron, 
and so has none to sell." '^ But why did B quit making 1 " '' Be- 
cause A quit buying of him, and he had no other customer to sell 
to." "But surely A did not cease buying of B with the expectation 
of buying of C on harder terms?" " Certainly not. Let me tell 
you how that was. When B was making iron as well as C, B had 
"but one customer, this farmer A ; C had four customers in Europe." 



It seems to be an opinion very generally entertained that the con- 
dition of a nation is best whenever it can buy cheapest ; but this is 
not necessarily true, because if, at the same time and by the same 
cause, it is compelled to sell correspondingly cheap, nothing is gained. 
Then it is said the best condition is when we can buy cheapest and 
sell dearest ; but this again is not necessarily true, because with both 
these we might have scarcely anything to sell, or, which is the same 
thing, to buy with. To illustrate this, suppose a man in the present 
state of things is laboring the year round, at ten dollars per month, 
which amounts in the year to $120. A change in affairs enables him 
to buy supplies at half the former price, to get fifty dollars per 
month for his labor, but at the same time deprives him of employ- 
ment during all the months of the year but one. In this case, 
though goods have fallen one half, and labor risen five to one, it is 
still plain that at the end of the year the laborer is twenty dollars 
poorer than under the old state of things. 

These reflections show that to reason and act con-ectly on this 
subject we must look not merely to buying cheap, nor yet to buying 
cheap and seUiug dear, but also to having constant employment, so 
that we may have the largest possible amount of something to sell. 
This matter of employment can only be secured by an ample, steady, 
and certain market to sell the products of our labor in. 

But let us yield the point, and admit that by abandoning the pro- 
tective policy our farmers can purchase their supplies of manufac- 
tured articles cheaper than by continuing it; and then let us see 
whether, even at that, they will upon the whole be gainers by the 



92 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

change. To simplify this question, let ns suppose the whole agricul- 
tural interest of the countrj^ to be in the hands of one man, who has 
one hundred laborers in his employ; the whole manufacturing in- 
terest to be in the hands of one other man, who has twenty laborers 
in his employ. The farmer owns all the plow and pasture land, and 
the manufacturer all the iron-mines and coal-banks and sites of 
water-power. Each is pushing on in his own way, and obtaining 
supplies from the other so far as he needs, — that is, the manufac- 
turer is buying of the farmer all the cotton he can use in his cotton- 
factory ; all the wool he can use in his woolen establishment ; all 
the bread and meat, as well as all the fruits and vegetables, which 
are necessary for himself and all his hands in all his departments ; 
all the corn and oats and hay which are necessary for all his horses 
and oxen, as well as fresh supplies of horses and oxen themselves to 
do all his heavy hauling about his iron-works and generally of every 
sort. The farmer, in turn, is buying of the manufacturer all the 
iron, iron tools, wooden tools, cotton goods, woolen goods, etc., that 
he needs in his business and for his hands. But after a while far- 
mer discovers that were it not for the protective policy he could 
buy all these supplies cheaper from a European manufacturer, owing 
to the fact that the price of labor is only one quarter as high there 
as here. He and his hands are a majority of the whole, and there- 
fore have the legal and moral right to have their interest first con- 
sulted. They throw off the protective policy, and farmer ceases 
buying of home manufacturer. Very soon, however, he discovers 
that to buy even at the cheaper rate requires something to buy with, 
and somehow or other he is falling short in this particular. 



In the early days of our race the Almighty said to the first of our 
race, ''In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread"; and since 
then, if we except the light and the air of heaven, no good thing has 
been or (;au be enjoyed by us without having first cost labor. And 
inasmuch as most good things are produced by labor, it follows that 
all such things of right belong to those whose labor has produced 
them. But it has so happened, in all ages of the world, that some 
have labored, and others have without labor enjoyed a large propor- 
tion of the fruits. This is wrong, and should not continue. To se- 
cure to each laborer the whole product of his labor, or as nearly as 
possible, is a worthy object of any good government. 

But then a question arises. How can a government best effect this? 
In our own country, in its present condition, will the protective prin- 
ciple advance or retard this object? Upon this subject the habits of 
our whole species fall into three great classes — useful labor, useless 
labor, and idleness. Of these the first only is meritorious, and to it 
all the products of labor rightfully belong; but the two latter, while 
they exist, are heavy pensioners upon the first, robbing it of a large 
portion of its just rights. The only remedy for this is to, so far as 
possible, drive useless labor and idleness out of existence. And, 
first, as to useless labor. Before making war upon this, we must 
learn to distinguish it from the useful. It appears to me that all 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 93 

labor done directly and indirectly in carrying articles to the place of 
consumption, which conld have been produced in sufficient abun- 
dance, with as little labor, at the place of consumption as at the place 
they were carried from, is useless labor. Let us take a few examples 
of the application of this principle to our own country. Iron, and 
everything made of iron, can be produced in sufficient abundance, and 
with as little labor, in the United States as anywhere else in the 
world ; therefore all labor done in bringing- iron and its fabrics from 
a foreign country to the United States is useless labor. The same 
precisely may be said of cotton, wool, and of their fabrics respec- 
tively, as well as many other articles. While the uselessness of the 
carrying labor is equally true of all the articles mentioned, and of 
many others not mentioned, it is perhaps more glaringly obvious in 
relation to the cotton goods we purchase from abroad. The raw cot- 
ton from which they are made itself grows in our own country, is 
carried by land and by water to England, is there spun, wove, dyed, 
stamped, etc., and then carried back again and worn in the very 
country where it grew, and partly by the very persons who grew it. 
Why should it not be spun, wove, etc., in the very neighborhood 
where it both grows and is consumed, and the carrying thereby dis- 
pensed with'? Has nature interposed any obstacle f Are not all the 
agents — animal-power, water-power, and steam-power — as good and 
as abundant here as elsewhere? Will not as small an amount of 
human labor answer here as elsewhere ? We may easily see that the 
cost of this useless labor is very heavy. It includes not only the 
cost of the actual carriage, but also the insurances of every kind, and 
the profits of the merchants through whose hands it passes. All 
these create a heavy burden necessarily falling upon the useful labor 
connected with such articles, either depressing the price to the pro- 
ducer or advancing it to the consumer, or, v/liat is more probable, 
doing both in part. 

A supposed case will serve to illustrate several points now to the 
purpose. A, in the interior of South Carolina, has one hundred 
pounds of cotton, which we suppose to be the precise product of one 
man's labor for twenty daj^s. B, in Manchester, England, has one 
hundred yards of cotton cloth, the precise product of the same 
amount of labor. This lot of cotton and lot of cloth are precisely 
equal to each other in their intrinsic value. But A wishes to part 
with his cotton for the largest quantity of cloth he can get. B also 
wishes to part with his cloth for the greatest quantity of cotton 
he can get. An exchange is therefore necessary; but before this 
can be effected, the cotton must be carried to Manchester, and the 
cloth to South Carolina. The cotton starts to Manchester. The man 
that hauls it to Charleston in his wagon takes a little of it out to pay 
him for his trouble; the merchant who stores it a while before the 
ship is ready to sail takes a little out for his trouble ; the ship-owner 
who carries it across the water takes a little out for his trouble. 
Still, before it gets to Manchester it is tolled two or three times more 
for drayage, storage, commission, and so on ; so that when it reaches 
B's hands there are but seventj^-five pounds of it left. The cloth, 
too, in its transit from Manchester to South Carolina, goes through 



94 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the same process of tolling; so that wheu it reaches A there are but 
seventy-five yards of it. Now, in this case^ A and B have each parted 
with twenty days' labor, and each received but fifteen in return. 
But now let us suppose that B has removed to the side of A's farm 
in South Carolina, and has there made his lot of cloth. Is it not clear 
that he and A can then exchange their cloth and cotton, each getting 
the whole of what the other parts with! 

This supposed case shows the utter uselessness of the carrying 
labor in all similar cases, and also the direct burden it imposes 
upon useful labor. And whoever will take up the train of reflection 
suggested by this case, and run it out to the full extent of its jnst 
application, will be astonished at the amount of useless labor he will 
thus discover to be done in this very way. I am mistaken if it is 
not in fact many times over equal to all the real want in the world. 
This useless labor I would have discontinued, and those engaged in 
it added to the class of useful laborers. If I be asked whether I 
would destroy all commerce, I answer, Certainly not; I would con- 
tinue it where it is necessary, and discontinue it where it is not. 
An instance : I would continue commerce so far as it is employed in 
bringing us coflfee, and I would discontinue it so far as it is em- 
ployed in bringing us cotton goods. 

But let us yield the point, and admit that by abandoning the pro- 
tective policy our farmers can purchase their supplies of manufac- 
tured articles cheaper than before; and then let us see whether, 
even at that, the farmers will upon the whole be gainers by the 
change. To simplify this question, let us suppose our whole popu- 
lation to consist of but twenty men. Under the prevalence of the 
protective policy, fifteen of these are farmers, one is a miller, one 
manufactures iron, one implements from iron, one cotton goods, 
and one woolen goods. The farmers discover that, owing to labor 
only costing one quarter as much in Europe as here, they can buy 
iron, iron implements, cotton goods, and woolen goods cheaper 
when brought from Europe than when made by their neighbors. 
They are the majority, and therefore have both the legal and moral 
right to have their interest first consulted. They throw off the pro- 
tective polic}^, and cease buying these articles of their neighborfs. 
But they soon discover that to buy, and at the cheaper rate, requires 
something to buy with. Falling short in this particular, one of 
these farmers takes a load of wheat to the miller and gets it made 
into flour, and starts, as had been his custom, to the iron furnace. 
He approaches the well-known spot, but, strange to say, all is cold 
and still as death ; no smoke rises, no furnace roars, no anvil rings. 
After some search he finds the owner of the desolate place, and calls 
out to him, *' Come, Vulcan, don't you want to buy a load of flour?" 
"Why," says Vulcan, "I am hungry enough, to be sure, — have n't 
tasted bread for a week ; but then you see my works are stopped, 
and I have nothing to give you for your flour." "But, Vulcan, 
why don't you go to work and get something !" "I am ready to do 
so. Will you hire me, farmer?" " Oh, no ; I could only set you to 
raising wheat, and you see I have more of that already than I can 
get anything for." " But give me employment, and send your flour 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 95 

to Europe for a market." "Why, Vulcan, how silly you talk! 
Don't you know they raise wheat in Europe as well as here, and 
that labor is so cheap there as to fix the price of flour there so low 
as scarcely to pay the long carriage of it from here, leaving nothing 
whatever to me ? " " But, farmer, could n't you pay to raise and 
prepare garden-stuffs, and fruits, such as radishes, cabbages, Irish 
and sweet potatoes, cucumbers, watermelons and musk-melons, 
plums, pears, peaches, apples, and the like? All these are good 
things, and used to sell well." " So they did use to sell well ; but it 
was to you we sold them, and now you tell us you have nothing to 
buy with. Of course I cannot sell such things to the other farmers, 
because each of them raises enough for himself, and in fact rather 
wishes to sell than to buy. Neither can I send them to Europe for 
a market, because, to say nothing of European markets being 
stocked with such articles at lower prices than I can afford, they 
are of such a nature as to rot before they could reach there. The 
truth is, Vulcan, I am compelled to quit raising these things alto- 
gether, except a few for my own use ; and this leaves part of my 
own time idle on my hands, instead of my finding employment for 
you." 

If at any time all labor should cease, and all existing provisions 
be equally divided among the people^ at the end of a single year 
there could scarcely be one human being left alive ; aU would have 
perished by want of subsistence. So, again, if upon such division 
all that sort of labor which produces provisions should cease, and 
each individual should take up so much of his share as he could, and 
carry it continually around his habitation, although in this carrying 
the amount of labor going on might be as great as ever so long as 
it could last, at the end of the year the result would be precisely the 
same — that is, none would be left living. 

The first of these propositions shows that universal idleness would 
speedily result in universal ruin ; and the second shows that useless 
labor is, in this respect, the same as idleness. I submit, then, 
whether it does not follow that partial idleness and partial useless 
labor would, in the proportion of their extent, in like manner result 
in partial ruin ; whether, if all should subsist upon the labor that 
one half should perform, it would not result in very scanty allow- 
ance to the whole. 

Believing that these propositions and the conclusions I draw from 
them cannot be successfully controverted, I for the present assume 
their correctness, and proceed to try to show that the abandonment 
of the protective policy by the American government must result in 
the increase of both useless labor and idleness, and so, in propor- 
tion, must produce want and ruin among om* people. 

(The foregoing scraps about protection were written by Lincoln 
between his election to Congress in 1846 and taking his seat in De- 
cember, 1847.) 



96 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



December 5, 1847.— Letter to William H. Herndon. 

Washington, December 5, 1847. 

Bear William : You may remember that about a year ago a man 
by the name of Wilson (James Wilson, I think) paid us twenty dol- 
lars as an advance fee to attend to a case in the Supreme Court for 
him, against a Mr. Campbell, the record of which case was in the 
hands of Mr. Dixon of St. Louis, who never furnished it to us. 
When I Avas at Bloomington last fall, I met a friend of Wilson, who 
mentioned the subject to me, and induced me to write to Wilson, 
telling him I would leave the ten dollars with you which had been 
left with me to pay for making abstracts in the case, so that the 
case may go on this winter ; but I came away, and forgot to do it. 
What I want now is to send you the money, to be used accordingly, 
if any one comes on to start the case, or to be retained by you if no 
one does. 

There is nothing of consequence new here. Congress is to organ- 
ize to-morrow. Last night we held a Whig caucus for the House, 
and nominated Winthrop of Massachusetts for speaker, Sargent of 
Pennsylvania for sergeant-at-arms. Homer of New Jersey door- 
keeper, and McCormick of District of Columbia postmaster. The 
Whig majority in the House is so small that, together with some 
little dissatisfaction, [it] leaves it doubtful whether we will elect 
them all. 

This paper is too thick to fold, which is the reason I send only 
a half-sheet. Yours as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 



December 13, 1847. — Letter to William H. Herndon. 

Washington, December 13, 1847. 

Dear William : Your letter, advising me of the receipt of our fee 
in the bank case, is just received, and I don't expect to hear another 
as good a piece of news from Springfield while I am away. I am 
under no obligations to the bank ; and I therefore wish you to buy 
bank certificates, and pay my debt there, so as to pay it with the 
least money possible. I would as soon you should buy them of Mr. 
Ridgely, or any other person at the bank, as of any one else, pro- 
vided you can get them as cheaply. I suppose, after the bank debt 
shall be paid, there will be some money left, out of which I would 
like to have you pay Lavely and Stout twenty dollars, and Priest 
and somebody (oil-makers) ten dollars, for materials got for house- 
painting. If there shall still be any left, keep it till you see or hear 
from me. 

I shall begin sending documents so soon as I can get them. I 
wrote you yesterday about a " Congressional Globe." As you are 
all so anxious for me to distinguish myself, I have concluded to do 
so before long. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln, 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 97 



December 22, 1847. — Resolutions in the United States 
House op Representatives. 

Whereas, The President of the United States, in his message of 
May 11, 1846, has declared that '* the Mexican Government not only 
refused to receive him [the envoy of the United States] , or to listen 
to his propositions, but, after a long-continued series of menaces, 
has at last invaded our territory and shed the blood of our fellow- 
citizens on our own soil." 

And again, in his message of December 8, 1846, that '^ we had 
ample cause of war against Mexico long before the breaking out of 
hostilities ; but even then we forbore to take redi'ess into our own 
hands until Mexico herself became the aggressor, by invading our 
soil in hostile array, and shedding the blood of our citizens." 

And yet again, in his message of December 7, 1847, that "the 
Mexican Government refused even to hear the terms of adjustment 
which he [our minister of peace] was authorized to propose, and 
finally, under wholly unjustifiable pretexts, involved the two conn- 
tries in war, by invading the territory of the State of Texas, strik- 
ing the first blow, and shedding the blood of our citizens on our 
own soil." 

And ivhereas, This House is desirons to obtain a full knowledge 
of all the facts which go to establish whether the particular spot on 
which the blood of our citizens was so shed was or was not at that 
time our own soil : therefore, 

Resolved, By the House of Representatives, that the President of 
the United States be respectfully requested to inform this House — 

First. Whether the spot on which the blood of our citizens was 
shed, as in his message declared, was or was not within the terri- 
tory of Spain, at least after the treaty of 1819 nntil the Mexican 
revolution. 

Second. Whether that spot is or is not within the territory which 
was wrested from Spain by the revolutionary Government of Mexico. 

Third. Whether that spot is or is not within a settlement of 
people, which settlement has existed ever since long before the Texas 
revolution, and until its inhabitants fled before the approach of the 
United States army. 

Fourth. Whether that settlement is or is not isolated from any 
and all other settlements by the Gulf and the Rio Grande on the 
south and west, and by wide uninhabited regions on the north and east. 

Fifth. Whether the people of that settlement, or a majority of 
them, or any of them, have ever submitted themselves to the govern- 
ment or laws of Texas or of the United States, by consent or by 
compulsion, either by accepting office, or voting at elections, or pay- 
ing tax, or serving on juries, or having process served ujjon them, 
or in any other way. 

Sixth. Whether "the people of that settlement did or did not flee 

from the approach of the United States army, leaving unprotected 

their homes and their growing crops, before the blood was shed, as 

in the message stated ; and whether the first blood, so shed, was or 

Vol. 1—7. 



98 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

was uot shed within the inclosure of one of the people who had thus 
fled from it. 

Seventh. Whether our citizens, whose blood was shed, as in his 
message declared, were or were not, at that time, armed officers aud 
soldiers, sent into that settlement by the military order of the Presi- 
dent, through the Secretar}^ of War. 

Eighth. Whether the military force of the United States was or 
was not so sent into that settlement after General Taylor had more 
than once intimated to the War Department that, in his opinion, no 
such movement w^as necessary to the defense or protection of Texa?;. 



January 5, 1848. — Remarks in the United States 
House op Representatives. 

Mr. Lincoln said he had made an effort, some few days since, to 
obtain the floor in relation to this measure [resolution to direct Post- 
master-General to make arrangements with railroad for carrying the 
mails — in Committee of the Whole], but had failed. One of the 
objects he had then had in view was now in a great measure super- 
seded by what had fallen from the gentleman from Virginia who 
had just taken his seat. He begged to assure his friends on the 
other side of the House that no assault whatever was meant upon 
the Postmaster-General, and he was glad that what the gentleman 
had now said modified to a great extent the impression which miglit 
have been created by the language he had used on a previous occa- 
sion. He wanted to state to gentlemen who might have entertained 
such impressions, that the Committee on the Post-office was com- 
posed of five Whigs and four Democrats, and their report was 
understood as sustaining, not impugning, the position taken by the 
Postmaster-General. That report had met with the approbation of 
all the Whigs, and of all the Democrats also, with the exception of 
one, and he wanted to go even further than this. [Intimation was 
informally given Mr. Lincoln that it w^as not in order to mention on 
the floor what had taken place in committee.] He then observed 
that if he had been out of order in what he had said, he took it all 
back so far as he could. He had no desire, he could assure gentlemen, 
ever to be out of order — though he never could keep long in order. 

Mr. Lincoln went on to observe that he differed in opinion, in 
the present case, from his honorable friend from Richmond [Mr. 
Botts]. That gentleman had begun his remarks by saying that if 
all prepossessions in this matter could be removed out of the way, 
but little difficulty would be experienced in coming to an agreement. 
Now, he could assure that gentleman that he had himself begun the 
examination of the subject with prepossessions all in his favor. He 
had long and often heard of him, and, from what he had heard, was 

E repossessed in his favor. Of the Postmaster-General he had also 
card, but had no prepossessions in his favor, though certainly none 
of an opposite kind. He differed, however, with that gentleman in 
politics, while in this respect he agreed with the gentleman from 
Virginia [Mr. Botts], whom he wished to oblige whenever it was in 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 99 

his power. That gentleman had referred to the report made to the 
House by the Postmaster-General, and had intimated an apprehen- 
sion that gentlemen would be disposed to rely on that report alone, 
and derive their views of the case from that document alone. Now 
it so happened that a pamphlet had been slipped into his [Mr Lin- 
coln's] hand before he read the report of the Postmaster-General ; 
so that, even in this, he had begun with prepossessions in favor of 
the gentleman from Virginia. 

As to the report, he had but one remark to make : he had care- 
fully examined it, and he did not understand that there was any dis- 
pute as to the facts therein stated — the dispute, if he understood 
it, was confined altogether to the inferences to be drawn from those 
facts. It was a difference not about facts, but about conclusions. 
The facts were not disputed. If he was right in this, he supposed 
the House might assume the facts to be as they were stated, and 
thence proceed to draw their own conclusions. 

The gentleman had said that the Postmaster-General had got into 
a personal squabble with the railroad company. Of this Mr. Lin- 
coln knew nothing, nor did he need or desire to know anything, be- 
cause it had nothing whatever to do with a just conclusion from the 
premises. But the gentleman had gone on to ask whether so great 
a grievance as the present detention of the Southern mail ought not 
to be remedied ? Mr. Lincoln would assure the gentleman that if 
there was a proper way of doing it, no man was more anxious than 
he that it should be done. The report made by the committee had 
been intended to yield much for the sake of removing that griev- 
ance. That the grievance was very great, there was no dispute in 
any quarter. He supposed that the statements made by the gentle- 
man from Virginia to show this were aU entirely correct in point of 
fact. He did suppose that the interruptions of regular intercourse, 
and all the other inconveniences growing out of it, were all as that 
gentleman had stated them to be ; and certainly, if redress could be 
rendered, it was proper it should be rendered as soon as possible. 
The gentleman said that in order to effect this, no new legislative 
action was needed ; all that was necessary was that the Postmaster- 
(leueral should be required to do what the law, as it stood, author- 
ized and required him to do. 

We come then, said Mr. Lincoln, to the law. Now the Postmas- 
ter-General says he cannot give to this company more than two 
linndred and thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents per railroad mile of 
transportation, and twelve and half per cent less for transportation 
by steainboats. He considers himself as restricted by law to this 
amount ; and he says, further, that he would not give more if he 
could, because in his apprehension it would not be fair and just. 



January 8, 1848. — Letter to Williajvi H. Herndon. 

Washington, January 8, 1848. 
Dear William : Your letter of December 27 was received a day or 
two ago. I am much obliged to you for the trouble you have taken, 



100 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and promise to take in my little business there. As to speech- 
making, by way of getting the hang of the House I made a little 
speech two or three days ago on a post-office question of no general 
interest. I find speaking here and elsewhere about the same thing. 
I was about as badly scared, and no worse, as I am when I speak in 
court. I expect to make one within a week or two, in which I hope 
to succeed well enough to wish you to see it. 

It is very pleasant to learn from you that there are some who de- 
sire that I should be reelected. I most heartily thank them for their 
kind partiality; and lean say, as Mr. Clay said of the annexation of 
Texas, that " personally I would not object " to a reelection, although 
I thought at the time, and still think, it would be quite as well for me 
to return to the law at the end of a single term. I made the decla- 
ration that I would not be a candidate again, more from a wish to 
deal fairly with others, to keep peace among our friends, and to keep 
the district from going to the enemy, than for any cause personal to 
myself; so that, if it should so happen that nobody else wishes to be 
elected, I could not refuse the people the right of sending me again. 
But to enter m3^self as a competitor of others, or to authorize any 
one so to enter me, is w4iat my word and honor forbid. 

I got some letters intimating a probability of so much difficulty 
amongst our friends as to lose us the district; but I remember such 
letters were written to Baker when my own case was under consid- 
eration, and I trust there is no more ground for such apprehension 
now than there was then. Remember I am always glad to receive a 
letter from you. Most truly your friend, 

A. Lincoln. 



January 12, 1848. — Speech in the United States 
House of Representatives. 

j\[r. Chairman : Some if not all the gentlemen on the other side 
of the House who have addressed the committee within the last two 
days have spoken rather complainingly, if I have rightly under- 
stood them, of the vote given a week or ten days ago declaring that 
the war with Mexico was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally com- 
menced by the President. I admit that such a vote should not be 
given in mere party wantonness, and that the one given is justly 
censurable, if it have no other or better foundation. I am one of 
those who joined in that vote; and I did so under my best impression 
of the truth of the case. How I got this impression, and how it may 
possibly be remedied, I will now try to show. When the war began, 
it was my opinion that all those who because of knowing too little, 
or because of knowing too much, could not conscientiously oppose 
the conduct of the President in the beginning of it slioukl never- 
theless, as good citizens and patriots, remain silent on that point, at 
least till the war should be ended. Some leading Democrats, in- 
cluding ex-President Van Buren, have taken this same view, as I 
understand them ; and I adhered to it and acted upon it, until since 
I took my seat here ; and I think I should still adhere to it were it 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 101 

not that the President and his friends will not allow it to be so. 
Besides the continual effort of the President to argue every silent 
vote given for supplies into an indorsement of the justice and wis- 
dom of his conduct; besides that singulai'ly candid paragraph in his 
late message in which he tells us that Congress with great una- 
nimity had declared that " by the act of the Republic of Mexico, a 
state of war exists between that Government and the United States," 
when the same journals that informed him of this also informed 
him that when that declaration stood disconnected from the ques- 
tion of supplies sixty-seven in the House, and not fourteen merely, 
voted against it ; besides this open attempt to prove by telling the 
truth what he could not prove by telling the whole truth — demand- 
ing of all who will not submit to be misrepresented, in justice to 
themselves, to speak out, — besides all this, one of my colleagues 
[Mr. Richardson] at a very early day in the session brought in a set 
ot resolutions expressly indorsing the original justice of the war on 
the part of the President. Upon these resolutions when they shall 
be put on their passage I shall be compelled to vote ; so that I 
cannot be silent if I would. Seeing this, I went about preparing 
myself to give the vote understandingly when it should come. I 
carefully examined the President's message, to ascertain what he 
himself had said and proved upon the point. The result of this ex- 
amination was to make the impression that, taking for true all the 
President states as facts, he falls far short of proving his justifica- 
tion ; and that the President would have gone farther with his proof 
if it had not been for the small matter that the truth would not per- 
mit him. Under the impression thus made I gave the vote before 
mentioned. I propose now to give concisely the process of the ex- 
amination I made, and how I reached the conclusion I did. The 
President, in his first war message of May, 1846, declares that the 
soil was ours on which hostilities were commenced by Mexico, and 
he repeats that declaration almost in tlie same language in each 
successive annual message, thus showing that he deems that point 
a highh^ essential one. In the importance of that point I entirely 
agree with the President. To my judgment it is the very point 
upon which he should be justified, or condemned. In his message 
of December, 1846, it seems to have occurred to him, as is certainly 
true, that title — ownership — to soil or anything else is not a simple 
fact, but is a conclusion following on one or more simple facts; 
and that it was incumbent upon him to present the facts from which 
he concluded the soil was ours on which the fii'st blood of the war 
was shed. 

Accordingly, a little below the middle of page twelve in the mes- 
sage last referred to he enters upon that task; forming an issue 
and introducing testimony, extending the whole to a little below 
the middle of page fourteen'. Now, I propose to try to show that 
the whole of this — issue and evidence — is from beginning to end the 
sheerest deception. The issue, as he presents it, is in these words: 
" But there are those who, conceding all this to be true, assume the 
ground that the true western boundary of Texas is the Nueces, in- 
stead of the Rio Grande; and that, therefore, in marching our army 



102 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

to the east bank of the latter river, we passed the Texas line and in- 
vaded the territory of Mexico." Now this issue is made np of two 
affirmatives and no negative. The main deception of it is that it 
assumes as true that one river or the other is necessarily the boun- 
dary; and cheats the superficial thinker entirely out of the idea 
that possibly the boundary is somewhere between the two, and not 
actually at either. A further deception is that it will let in evidence 
which a true issue would exclude. A true issue made by the Presi- 
dent would be about as follows : " I say tlie soil was ours, on which 
the first blood was shed ; there are those who say it was not." 

I now proceed to examine the President's evidence as applicable 
to such an issue. When that evidence is analyzed, it is all included 
in the following- propositions : 

(1) That the Rio Grande was the western boundary of Louisiana 
as we purchased it of France in 1803. 

(2) That the Republic of Texas always claimed the Rio Grande as 
her western boundary. 

(3) That by various acts she had claimed it on paper. 

(4) That Santa Anna in his treaty with Texas recognized the Rio 
Grande as her boundary. 

(5) That Texas before, and the United States after, annexation had 
exercised jurisdiction beyond the Nueces — between the two rivers. 

(6) That our Congress understood the boundary of Texas to ex- 
tend beyond the Nueces. 

Now for each of these in its turn. His first item is that the Rio 
Grande was the western boundary of Louisiana, as we purchased 
it of France in 1803 ; and seeming to expect this to be disputed, he 
argues over the amount of nearly a page to prove it ti'ue ; at the 
end of which he lets us know that by the treaty of 1819 we sold 
to Spain the whole country from the Rio Grande eastward to the 
Sabine. Now, admitting for the present that the Rio Grande was 
the boundary of Louisiana, what, under heaven, had that to do with 
the present boundary between us and Mexico? How, Mr. Chair- 
man, the line that once divided your land from mine can still be the 
boundary between us after I have sold my land to you is to me 
3'ond all comprehension. And how any man, with an honest pur- 
pose only of proving the truth, could ever have thought of introdu- 
cing such a fact to prove such an issue is equally incomprehensible. 
His next piece of evidence is that " the Republic of Texas always 
claimed this river (Rio Grande) as her western boundary." That is 
not true, in fact. Texas has claimed it, but she has not always 
claimed it. There is at least one distinguished exception. Her 
State constitution — the republic's most solemn and well-considered 
act; that which may, without impropriety, be called her last will 
and testament, revoking all others — makes no such claim. But sup- 
pose she had always claimed it. Has not Mexico always claimed the 
contrary ? So that there is but claim against claim, leaving nothing 
proved until we get back of the claims and find which has the better 
foundation. Though not in the order in which the President pre- 
sents his evidence, 1 now consider that class of his statements which 
are in substance nothing more than that Texas has, by various acts 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN 103 

of her Convention and Congress, claimed the Rio Grande as her 
boundary, on paper. I mean here what he says about the fixing 
of the Rio Grande as her boundary in her old constitution (not her 
State constitution), about forming congressional districts, coun- 
ties, etc. Now all of this is but naked claim ; and what I have al- 
ready said about claims is strictly applicable to this. If I should 
claim your land by word of mouth, that certainly would not make 
it mine ; and if I were to claim it by a deed which I had made my- 
self, and with which you had had nothing to do, the claim would be 
quite the same in substance — or rather, in utter nothingness. I 
next consider the President's statement that Santa Anna in his 
treaty with Texas recognized the Rio Grande as the western boun- 
dary of Texas. Besides the position so often taken, that Santa Anna 
while a prisoner of war, a captive, could not bind Mexico by a 
treaty, which I deem conclusive — besides this, I wish to say some- 
thing in relation to this treaty, so called by the President, with 
Santa Anna. If any man would like to be amused by a sight of 
that little thing which the President calls by that big name, he can 
have it by turning to " Niles's Register," Vol. L, p. 336. And if any 
one should suppose that '^ Niles's Register" is a curious repository 
of so mighty a document as a solemn treaty between nations, I can 
only say that I learned to a tolerable degree of certainty, by inquiry 
at the State Department, that the President himself never saw it 
anywhere else. By the way, I believe I should not err if I were to 
declare that during the fii*s"t ten years of the existence of that docu- 
ment it was never by anybody called a treaty — that it was never so 
called till the President, in his extremity, attempted by so calling it 
to wring something from it in justification of himself in connec- 
tion with the Mexican war. It has none of the distinguishing 
features of a treaty. It does not call itself a treaty. Santa Anna 
does not therein assume to bind Mexico; he assumes only to act 
as the President-Commander-in-Chief of the Mexican army and 
navy ; stipulates that the then present hostilities should cease, and 
that he would not himself take up arms, nor influence the Mexican 
people to take up arms, against Texas during the existence of the 
war of independence. He did not recognize the independence of 
Texas; he did not assume to put an end to the war, but clearly 
indicated his expectation of its continuance ; he did not say one 
word about boundary, and, most probably, never thought of it. It 
is stipulated therein that the Mexican forces should evacuate the 
territory of Texas, passing to the other side of the Rio Grande ; and 
in another article it is stipulated that, to prevent collisions between 
the armies, the Texas army should not approach nearer than within 
five leagues — of what is not said, but clearly, from the object stated, 
it is of the Rio Grande. Now, if this is a treaty recognizing the Rio 
Grande as the boundary of Texas, it contains the singular features 
of stipulating that Texas shall not go within five leagues of her own 
boundary. 

Next comes the evidence of Texas before annexation, and the 
United States afterward, exercising jurisdiction beyond the Nueces 
and between the two rivers. This actual exercise of jurisdiction is 



104 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the very class or quality of evidence we want. It is excellent so far 
as it goes ; but does it go far enough ? He tells us it went beyond 
the Nueces, but he does not tell us it went to the Rio Grande. He 
tells us j oi'isdiction was exercised between the two rivers, but he does 
not tell us it was exercised over all the territory between them. 
Some simple-minded people think it is possible to cross one river 
and go beyond it without going all the way to the next, that juris- 
diction may be exercised between two rivers without covering all the 
country between them. I know a man, not very unlike myself, who 
exercises jurisdiction over a piece of land between the Wabash and 
the Mississippi ; and yet so far is this from being all there is between 
those rivers that it is just one hundred and fifty-two feet long by 
fifty feet wide, and no part of it much within a hundi'ed miles of 
either. He has a neigh Ijor between him and the Mississippi — that 
is, just across the street, in that direction — whom I am sure he could 
neither persuade nor force to give up his habitation; but which 
nevertheless he could certainly annex, if it were to be done by 
merely standing on his own side of the street and claiming it, or even 
sitting down and writing a deed for it. 

But next the President tells us the Congress of the United States 
understood the State of Texas they admitted into the Union to ex- 
tend beyond the Nueces. Well, I suppose they did. I certainly so 
understood it. But how far beyond ? That Congress did not un- 
derstand it to extend clear to the Rio Grande is quite certain, by the 
fact of their joint resolutions for admission expressly leaving all 
questions of boundary to future adjustment. And it may be added 
that Texas herself is proved to have had the same understanding of 
it that our Congress had, by the fact of the exact conformity of her 
new constitution to those resolutions. 

I am now through the whole of the President's evidence; and it is 
a singular fact that if any one should declare the President sent the 
army into the midst of a settlement of Mexican people who had never 
submitted, by consent or by force, to the authority of Texas or of 
the United States, and that there and thereby the first blood of the 
war was shed, there is not one word in all the President has said 
which would either admit or deny the declaration. This strange 
omission it does seem to me could not have occurred but by design. 
My way of living leads me to be about the courts of justice; and 
there I have sometimes seen a good lawyer, struggling for his client's 
neck in a desperate case, employing every artifice to work round, 
befog, and cover up with many words some point arising in the case 
which he dared not admit and yet could not deny. Party bias may 
help to make it appear so, but with all the allowance I can make for 
such bias, it still does appear to me that just such, and from just 
such necessity, is the President's struggle in this case. 

Some time after my colleague [Mr. Richardson] introduced the 
resolutions I have mentioned, I introduced a preamble, resolution, 
and interrogations, intended to draw the President out, if possible, 
on this hitherto untrodden ground. To show their relevancy, I pro- 
pose to state my understanding of the true rule for ascertaining the 
boundary between Texas and Mexico. It is that wherever Texas was 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 105 

exercising jurisdiction was hers; and wherever Mexico was exercis- 
ing jurisdiction was hers; and that whatever separated the actual 
exercise of jurisdiction of the one from that of the other was the true 
boundary between them. If, as is probably true, Texas was exer- 
cising jimsdiction along the western bank of the Nueces, and Mexico 
was exercising it along the eastern bank of the Rio Grande, then 
neither river was the boundary ; but the uninhabited country be- 
tween the two was. The extent of our territory in that region de- 
pended not on any treaty -fixed boundary (for no treaty had attempted 
it), but on revolution. Any people anywhere being inclined and 
having the power have the right to rise up and shake off the existing 
government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a 
most valuable, a most sacred right — a right which we hope and be- 
lieve is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in 
which the whole people of an existing government may choose to 
exercise it. Any portion of such people that can may revolutionize 
and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit. 
More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revo- 
lutionize, putting down a minority, intermingled with or near about 
them, who may oppose this movement. Such minority was precisely 
the case of the Tories of our own revolution. It is a quality of revo- 
lutions not to go by old lines or old laws; but to break up both, and 
make new ones. 

As to the country now in question, we bought it of France in 
1803, and sold it to Spain in 1819, according to the President's 
statements. After this, all Mexico, including Texas, revolution- 
ized against Spain; and stiU later Texas revolutionized against 
Mexico. In my view, just so far as she carried her resolution by ob- 
taining the actual, willing or unwilling, submission of the people, 
so far the country was hers, and no fai'ther. Now, sir, for the pur- 
pose of obtaining the very best evidence as to whether Texas had 
actually carried her revolution to the place where the hostilities of 
the present war commenced, let the President answer the interroga- 
tories I proposed, as before mentioned, or some other similar ones. 
Let him answer fully, fairly, and candidly. Let him answer with 
facts and not with arguments. Let him remember he sits where 
Washington sat, and so remembering, let him answer as Washing- 
ton would answer. As a nation should not, and the Almighty will 
not, be evaded, so let him attempt no evasion — no equivocation. 
And if, so answering, he can show that the soil was ours where the 
first blood of the war was shed, — that it was not within an inhabited 
country, or, if within such, that the inhabitants had submitted them- 
selves to the civil authority of Texas or of the United States, and that 
the same is true of the site of Fort Brown, — then I am with him for 
his justification. In that case I shall be most happy to reverse the 
vote I gave the other day, I have a selfish motive for desiring that 
the President may do this — I expect to gain some votes, in connec- 
tion with the war, which, without his so doing, will be of doubtful 
propriety in my own judgment, but which will be free from the 
doubt if he does so. But if he can not or wiU not do this, — if on 
any pretense or no pretense he shall refuse or omit it — then I shall 



106 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

be fully convinced of what I more than suspect already — that he is 
deeply conscious of being in the wrong ; that he feels the blood of 
this war, like the blood of Abel, is crying to Heaven against him ; 
that originally having some strong motive — what, I will not stop 
now to give my opinion concerning — to involve the two countries 
in a war, and trusting to escape scrutiny by fixing the public gaze 
upon the exceeding brightness of military glory, — that attractive 
rainbow that rises in showers of blood — that serpent's eye that 
charms to destroy, — he plunged into it, and has swept on and on 
till, disappointed in his calculation of the ease with which Mexico 
might be subdued, he now finds himself he knows not where. How 
like the half-insane mumbling of a fever dream is the whole war 
part of his late message ! At one time telling us that Mexico has 
nothing whatever that we can get but territory ; at another showing 
us how we can support the war by levying contributions on Mexico. 
At one time urging the national honor, the security of the future, 
the prevention of foreign interference, and even the good of Mexico 
herself as among the objects of the war ; at another telling us that 
" to reject indemnity, by refusing to accept a cession of territory, 
would be to abandon all our just demands, and to wage the war 
bearing all its expenses, without a purpose or definite object." So 
then this national honor, security of the future, and everything but 
territorial indemnity may be considered the no-purposes and indefi- 
nite objects of the war ! But, having it now settled that territorial 
indemnity is the only object, we are urged to seize, by legislation 
here, all that he was content to take a few months a^o, and the 
whole province of Lower California to boot, and to still carry on 
the war — to take all we are fighting for, and still fight on. Again, 
the President is resolved under all circumstances to have full terri- 
torial indemnity for the expenses of the war ; but he forgets to tell 
us how we are to get the excess after those expenses shall have sur- 
passed the value of the whole of the Mexican territory. So again, he 
insists that the separate national existence of Mexico shall be main- 
tained ; but he does not tell us how this can be done, after we shall 
have taken all her territory. Lest the questions I have suggested 
be considered speculative merely, let me be indulged a moment in 
trying to show they are not. The war has gone on some twenty 
months ; for the expenses of which, together with an inconsiderable 
old score, the President now claims about one half of the Mexican 
territory, and that hy far the better half, so far as concerns our 
ability to make anythmg out of it. It is comparatively uninhabited ; 
so that we could establish land offices in it, and raise some money in 
that way. But the other half is already inhabited, as I understand 
it, tolerably densely for the nature of the country, and all its lands, 
or all that are valuable, already appropriated as private proj)erty. 
How then are we to make anything out of these lands with this en- 
cumbrance on them? or how remove the encumbrance? I suppose 
no one would say we should kill the people, or drive them out, or 
make slaves of them ; or confiscate their property. How, then, can 
we make much out of this part of the territory ? If the prosecution 
of the war has in expenses already equaled the better naif of the 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 107 

country, how long its future prosecution will be in equaling the less 
valuable half is not a speculative, but a practical, question, pressing 
closely upon us. And yet it is a question which the President seems 
never to have thought of. As to the mode of terminating the war 
and securing peace, the President is equally wandering and indefi- 
nite. First, it is to be done by a more vigorous prosecution of the 
war in the vital parts of the enemy's country ; and after apparently 
talking himself tired on this point, the President drops down into a 
half -despairing tone, and tells us that "with a people distracted and 
divided by contending factions, and a government subject to con- 
stant changes by successive revolutions, the continued success of our 
arms may fail to secure a satisfactory peace." Then he suggests the 
propriety of wheedling the Mexican people to desert the counsels of 
their own leaders, and, trusting in our protestations, to set up a 
government from which we can secure a satisfactory peace ; telling 
us that '' this may become the only mode of obtaining such a peace." 
But soon he falls into doubt of this too ; and then drops back onto 
the already half-abandoned ground of " more vigorous prosecution." 
All this shows that the President is in nowise satisfied with his own 
positions. First he takes up one, and in attempting to argue us 
into it he argues himself out of it, then seizes another and goes 
through the same process, and then, confused at being able to think 
of nothing new, he snatches up the old one again, which he has some 
time before cast off. His mind, taxed beyond its power, is running 
hither and thither, like some tortured creature on a bui'uing surface, 
finding no position on which it can settle down and be at ease. 

Again, it is a singular omission in this message that it nowhere 
intimates when the President expects the war to terminate. At its 
beginning, General Scott was by this same President driven into 
disfavor, if not disgrace, for intimating that peace could not be con- 
quered in less than three or four months. But now, at the end of 
about twenty months, during which time our arms have given us the 
most splendid successes, every department and every part, land and 
water, officers and privates, regulars and volunteers, doing all that 
men could do, and hundreds of things which it had ever before been 
thought men could not do — after all this, this same President gives a 
long message, without showing us that as to the end he himself has 
even an imaginary conception. As I have before said, he knows not 
where he is. He is a bewildered, confounded, and miserably perplexed 
man. God grant he may be able to show there is not something 
about his conscience more painful than all his mental perplexity. 



The following is a copy of the so-called " treaty " referred to in 
the speech: 

Articles of Agreement entered into between his Excellency David G. 
Burnet, President of the Repubhc of Texas, of the one part, and his Ex- 
cellency General Santa Anna, President-General-in-Chief of the Mexican 
Army, of the other part. 

Article I. General Antonio Lopez de Santa. Anna agrees that he will 
not take up arms, nor will he exercise his influence to cause them to be taken 
up, against the people of Texas during the present war of independence. 



108 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Article II. AU hostilities between the Mexican and Texan troops will 
cease immediately, both by land and water. 

Ai'ticle III. The Mexican troops will evacuate the territory of Texas, 
passing to the other side of the Rio Grande Del Norte. 

Article IV. The Mexican ai-my, in its retreat, shall not take the property 
of any person without his consent and just indemnification, using only sucn 
articles as may be necessarj' for its subsistence, in cases when the owner 
may not be present, and remitting to the commander of the anny of Texas, 
or to the commissioners to be appointed for the adjustment of such matters, 
an account of the value of the property consumed, the place where taken, 
and the name of the owner, if it can be ascertained. 

Article V. That all private property, including cattle, horses, negi-o 
slaves, or indentui-ed persons, of whatever denomination, that may have 
been captured by any portion of the Mexican army, or may have taken 
refuge in the said army, since the commencement of the late invasion, shall 
be restored to the commander of the Texan army, or to such other persons 
as may be appointed by the Government of Texas to receive them. 

Article VI. The troops of both armies will refrain from coming in con- 
tact with each other ; and to this end the commander of the army of Texas 
will be careful not to approach witlun a shorter distance than five leag^ies. 

Article VII. The Mexican army shall not make any other delay on its 
march than that which is necessary to take up their hospitals, baggage, 
etc., and to cross the rivers ; any delay not necessary to these purposes to 
be considered an infraction of this agreement. 

Article VIII. By an express, to be immediately despatched, this agree- 
ment shall be sent to General Vineente Filisola and to General T. J. Rusk, 
conmiander of the Texan army, in order that they may be apprized of its 
stipulations ; and to this end they will exchange engagements to comply 
with the same. 

Article IX. That all Texan prisoners now in the possession of the Mexi- 
can army, or its authorities, be forthwith released, and furnished with free 
passports to return to their homes ; in consideration of which a correspond- 
ing number of Mexican prisoners, rank and file, now in possession of the 
Government of Texas shall be immediately released ; the remainder of the 
Mexican prisoners that continue in the possession of the Government of 
Texas to be treated with due humanity, — any extraordinary comforts that 
may be furnished them to be at the charge of the Government of Mexico. 

Article X. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna will be sent to Vera 
Cruz as soon as it shall be deemed proper. 

The contracting parties sign this instrument for the above-mentioned pur- 
poses, in duplicate, at the port of Velasco, this fourteenth day of May, 1836. 

David G. Burnet, President, 

Jas. Collingsworth, Secretary of State , 

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, 

B. Hardiman, Secretary of the Treasury, 

P. W. Grayson, Attorney- General. 

January 19, 1848. — Report in the United States 
House of Representatives. 

Mr. Lincoln, from the Committee on the Post-Office and Post 
Roads, made the following report: 

The Committee on the Post-Office and Post Roads, to whom was 
referred the petition of Messrs. Saltmarsh and Fuller, report: That, 
as proved to their satisfaction, the mail routes from Milledgeville to 
Athens, and from Warrenton to Decatur, in the State of Georgia 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 109 

(numbered 2366 and 2380), were let to Reeside and Avery at $1300 
per annum for the former and $1500 for the latter, for the term of 
four years, to commence on the first day of January, 1835; that, 
previous to the time for commencing the service, Reeside sold 
his interest therein to Avery; that on the 11th of May, 1835, 
Avery sold the whole to these petitioners, Saltmarsh and Fuller, to 
take effect from the beginning, January 1, 1835; that, at this time, 
the Assistant Postmaster-General, being called on for that pui-pose, 
consented to the transfer of the contracts from Reeside and Avery 
to these petitioners, and promised to have proper entries of the 
transfer made on the books of the department, which, however, was 
neglected to be done ; that the petitioners, supposing all was right, 
in good faith commenced the transportation of the mail on these 
routes, and after diflficulty arose, still trusting that all would be 
made right, continued the service till December 1, 1837; that they 
performed the service to the entire satisfaction of the department, 

and have never been paid anything for it except $ ; that the 

difficulty occurred as follows: Mr. Barry was Postmaster-General at 
the times of making the contracts and the attempted transfer of 
them ; Mr. Kendall succeeded Mr. Barry, and finding Reeside appa- 
rently in debt to the department, and these contracts still standing in 
the names of Reeside and Avery, refused to pay for the services un- 
der them, otherwise than by credits to Reeside ; afterward, however, 
he divided the compensation, still crediting one half to Reeside, and 
directing the other to be paid to the order of Avery, who disclaimed 
all right to it. After discontinuing the service, these petitioners, sup- 
posing they might have legal redress against Avery, brought suit 
against him in New Orleans; in which suit they failed, on the ground 
that Avery had complied with his contract, having done so much 
toward the transfer as they had accepted and been satisfied with. 
Still later the department sued Reeside on his supposed indebted- 
ness, and b}^ a verdict of the jury it was determined that the depart- 
ment was indebted to him iu a sum much beyond all the credits 
given him on the account above stated. Under these circumstances, 
the committee consider the petitioners clearly entitled to relief, and 
they report a bill accordingly ; lest, however, there should be some 
mistake as to the amount which they have already received, we so 
frame it as that, by adjustment at the department, they may be paid 
so much as remains unpaid for service actually performed by them — 
not charging them with the credits given to Reeside. The commit- 
tee think it not improbable that the petitioners purchased the right 
of Avery to be paid for the service from the 1st of January, till their 
purchase on May 11, 1835; but the evidence on this point being very 
vague, they forbear to report in favor of allowing it. 



January 19, 1848. — Letter to William H. Herndon. 

Washington, January 19, 1848. 
Dear William : Inclosed you find a letter of Louis W. Chandler. 
What is wanted is that you shall ascertain whether the claim upon 



110 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the note described has received any dividend in the Probate Court 
of Christian County, where the estate of Mr. Overton Williams has 
been administered on. If nothing is paid on it, withdraw the note 
and send it to me, so that Chandler can see the indorser of it. At 
all events write me all about it, till I can somehow get it off my 
hands. I have already been bored more than enough about it ; not 
the least of which annoyance is his cursed, unreadable, and ungodly 
handwriting. 

I have made a speech, a copy of which I will send you by next 
mail. Yours as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 



February 1, 1848.— Letter to William H. Herndon. 

Washington, February 1, 1848. 

Dear William : Your letter of the 19th ultimo was received last 
night, and for which I am much obliged. The only thing in it that 
I wish to talk to you at once about is that because of my vote for 
Ashmun's amendment you fear that you and I disagree about the 
war. I regret this, not because of any fear we shall remain dis- 
agreed after you have read this letter, but because if you misunder- 
stand I fear other good friends may also. That vote affirms that 
the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally commenced b}' 
the President ; and I will stake my life that if you had been in my 
place you would have voted just as I did. Would you have voted 
what you felt and knew to be a lie? I know you would not. 
Would you have gone out of the House — skulked the vote? I ex- 
pect not. If you had skulked one vote, you would have had to 
skulk many more before the end of the session. Richardson's reso- 
lutions, introduced before I made any move or gave any vote upon 
the subject, make the direct question of the justice of the war; so 
that no man can be silent if he would. You are compelled to speak ; 
and your only alternative is to tell the truth or a lie. I cannot 
doubt which you would do. 

This vote has nothing to do in determining my votes on the ques- 
tions of supplies. I have always intended, and still intend, to vote 
supplies; perhaps not in the precise form recommended by the 
President, but in a better form for all purposes, except Locofoco 
party purposes. It is in this particular you seem mistaken. The 
Locos are untiring in their efforts to make the impression that all 
who vote supplies or take part in the war do of necessity approve 
the President's conduct in the beginning of it; but the Whigs have 
from the beginning made and kept the distinction between the two. 
In the very first act nearly all the Whigs voted against the pream- 
ble declaring that war existed by the act of Mexico ; and yet nearly 
aU of them voted for the supplies. As to the Whig men who have 
participated in the war, so far as they have spoken in my hearing 
they do not hesitate to denounce as unjust the President's conduct 
in the beginning of the war. They do not suppose that such de- 
nunciation is directed by undying hatred to him, as '' The Regis- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 111 

ter " would have it believed. There are two such "Whigs on this floor 
(Colonel Haskell and Major James). The former fought as a colo- 
nel by the side of Colonel Baker at Cerro Gordo, and stands side 
by side with me in the vote that you seem dissatisfied with. The 
latter, the history of whose capture with Cassius Clay you well 
know, had not arrived here when that vote was given ; but, as I un- 
derstand, he stands ready to give just such a vote whenever an oc- 
casion shall present. Baker, too, who is now here, says the truth is 
undoubtedly that way; and whenever he shall speak out, he will 
say so. Colonel Doniphan, too, the favorite Whig of Missouri, and 
who overran all Northern Mexico, on his return home in a public 
speech at St. Louis condemned the administration in relation to the 
war, if I remember. G. T. M. Davis, who has been through almost 
the whole war, declares in favor of Mr. Clay; from which I infer 
that he adopts the sentiments of Mr. Clay, generally at least. On 
the other hand, I have heard of but one Whig who has been to the 
war attempting to justify the President's conduct. That one was 
Captain Bishop, editor of the " Charleston Courier," and a very 
clever fellow. I do not mean this letter for the public, but for you. 
Before it reaches you, you will have seen and read my pamphlet 
speech, and perhaps been scared anew by it. After you get over your 
scare, read it over again, sentence by sentence, and tell me honestly 
what you think of it. I condensed all I could for fear of being cut 
off by the hour rule, and when I got through I had spoken but 
forty-five minutes. Yours forever, 

A. Lincoln. 



February 2, 1848.— Letter to William H. Herndon. 

Washington, Februrary 2, 1848. 
Dear William : I just take my pen to say that Mr. Stephens, of 
Georgia, a little, slim, pale-faced, consumptive man, with a voice like 
Logan's, has just concluded the very best speech of an hour's length 
I ever heard. My old withered dry eyes are full of tears yet. 

If he writes it out anything like he delivered it, our people shall 
see a good many copies of it. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 
To William H. Herndon, Esq. 



February 15, 1848. — Letter to William H. Herndon. 

Washington, February 15, 1848. 
Dear William : Your letter of the 29th January was received last 
night. Being exclusively a constitutional argument, I wish to sub- 
mit some reflections upon it in the same spirit of kindness that I 
know actuates you. Let me first state what I understand to be your 
position. It is that if it shall become necessary to repel invasion, 
the President mayj without violation of the Constitution, cross the 



112 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

line and invade the territory of another country, and that whether 
sueh necessity exists in any given case the President is the sole judge. 

Before going further consider well whether this is or is not your 
position. If it is, it is a position that neither the President himself, 
nor any friend of his, so far as I know, has ever taken. Their only 
positions are — first, that the soil was ours when the hostilities com- 
menced ; and second, that whether it was rightfully ours or not. Con- 
gress had annexed it, and the President for that reason was bound to 
defend it; both of which are as clearly proved to be false in fact as 
you can prove that your house is mine. The soil was not ours, and 
Congress did not annex or attempt to annex it. But to return to 
your position. Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation 
whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you 
allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it ne- 
cessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure. 
Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, 
after having given him so much as you propose. If to-day he should 
choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the 
British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to 
him, "I see no probability of the British invading us"; but he will 
say to you, " Be silent: I see it, if you don't." 

The provision of the Constitution giving the war-making power to 
Congress was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: 
Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in 
wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people 
was the object. This our convention understood to be the most op- 
pressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame 
the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing 
this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, 
and places our President where kings have always stood. Write 
soon again. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 



February 20, 1848. — Letter to U. F. Linder. 

Washington, February 20, 1848. 
U. F. Linder: ... In law, it is good policy to never 
plead what you need not, lest you oblige yoiu'self to prove what 
you cannot. Reflect on this well before you proceed. The appli- 
cation I mean to make of this rule is that you should simply go 
for General Taylor, because you can take some Democrats and lose 
no Whigs ; but if you go also for Mr. Polk, on the origin and mode 
of prosecuting the war, you will still take some Democrats, but you 
will lose more Whigs; so that in the sum of the operation, you will 
be the loser. This is at least my opinion ; and if you will look 
around, I doubt if you do not discover such to be the fact among 
your own neighbors. Further than this : by justifying Mr. Polk's 
mode of prosecuting the war, you put yourself in opposition to 
General Taylor himself, for we all know he has declared for, and in 
fact originated, the defensive line of policy. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 113 

March 9, 1848. — Report in the United States 
House of Representatives, 

Mr. Lincoln, from the Committee on the Post-Office and Post 
Roads, made the following report : 

The Committee on the Post- Office and Post Roads, to whom was 
referred the resolntion of the House of Representatives entitled 
''An Act authorizing Postmasters at county seats of justice to re- 
ceive subscriptions for newspapers and periodicals, to be paid 
thi'ough the agency of the Post-Office Department, and for other 
purposes," beg leave to submit the following report : 

The committee have reason to believe that a general wish per- 
vades the community at large, that some such facility as the pro- 
posed measure should be granted by express law, for subscribing, 
through the agency of the Post-Office Department, to newspapers 
and periodicals which diifuse daily, weekly, or mouthty intelligence 
of passing events. Compliance with this general wish is deemed 
to be in accordance with our republican institutions, which can 
be best sustained by the diffusion of knowledge and the due en- 
couragement of a universal, national spirit of inquiry and discus- 
sion of public events through the medium of the public press. 
The committee, however, has not been insensible to its duty of 
guarding the Post-Office Department against injurious sacrifices 
for the accomplishment of this object, whereby its ordinary efficacy 
might be impaired or embarrassed. It has therefore been a subject 
of much consideration; but it is now confidently hoped that the 
bill herewith submitted effectually obviates all objections which 
might exist with regard to a less matured proposition. 

The committee learned, upon inquiry, that the Post-Office Depart- 
ment, in view of meeting the general wish on this subject, made the 
experiment through one of its own internal regulations, when the 
new postage system went into operation on the first of July, 1845, 
and that it was continued until the thirtieth of September, 1847. 
But this experiment, for reasons hereafter stated, proved unsatisfac- 
tory, and it was discontinued by order of the Postmaster-General. 
As far as the committee can at present ascertain, the following 
seem to have been the principal grounds of dissatisfaction in this 
experiment : 

(1) The legal responsibility, of postmasters receiving newspaper 
subscriptions, or of their sureties, was not defined. 

(2) The authority was open to all postmasters instead of being 
limited to those of specific offices. 

(3) The consequence of this extension of authority was that, in 
innumerable instances, the monej', without the previous knowledge 
or control of the officers of the department who are responsible for 
the good management of its finances, was deposited in offices where 
it was improper such funds should be placed ; and the repayment 
was ordered, not by the financial officers, but by the postmasters, 
at points where it was inconvenient to the department so to disburse 
its funds. 

Vol. I.— 8. 



114 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

(4) The inconvenience of accumulating uncertain and fluctuating 
sums at small offices was felt seriously in consequent overpayments 
to contractors on their quarterly collecting orders ; and, in case of 
private mail routes, in litigation concerning the misapplication of 
such funds to the special service of supplying mails. 

(5) The accumulation of such funds on draft offices could not be 
known to the financial clerks of the department in time to control it, 
and too often this rendered uncertain all their calculations of funds 
in hand. 

(6) The orders of payment were for the most part issued upon 
the principal offices, such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Balti- 
more, etc., where the large offices of publishers are located, causing 
an illimitable and uncontrollable drain of the department funds 
from those points where it was essential to husband them for its 
own regular disbursements. In Philadelphia alone this drain aver- 
aged $5000 per quarter ; and in other cities of the seaboard it was 
proportionate. 

(7) The embarrassment of the department was increased by the 
illimitable, uncontrollable, and irresponsible scattering of its funds 
from concentrated points suitable for its distributions, to remote, 
unsafe, and inconvenient offices, where they could not be again 
made available till collected by special agents, or were transferred 
at considerable expense into the principal disbursing offices again. 

(8) There was a vast increase of duties thrown upon the limited 
force before necessary to conduct the business of the department; 
and from the delay of obtaining vouchers impediments arose to the 
speedy settlement of accounts with present or retired postmasters, 
causing postponements which endangered the liability of sureties 
under the act of limitations, and causing much danger of an increase 
of such cases. 

(9) The most responsible postmasters (at the large offices) were 
ordered by the least responsible (at small offices) to make payments 
upon their vouchers, without having the means of ascertaining 
whether these vouchers were genuine or forged, or if genuine, 
whether the signers were in or out of office, or solvent or defaulters. 

(10) The transaction of this business for subscribers and publish- 
ers at the public expense, and the embarrassment, inconvenience, 
and delay of the department's own business occasioned by it, were 
not justified by any sufficient remuneration of revenue to sustain 
the department, as required in every other respect with regard to 
its agency. 

The committee, in view of these objections, has been solicitous to 
frame a bill which would not be obnoxious to them in principle or 
in practical effect. 

It is confidently believed that by limiting the offices for receiv- 
ing subscriptions to less than one tenth of the number authorized 
by the experiment already tried, and designating the county seat in 
each county for the purpose, the control of the department will be 
rendered satisfactory ; particularly as it will be in the power of the 
Auditor, who is the officer required by law to check the accounts, to 
approve or disapprove of the deposits, and to sanction not only the 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 115 

payment, but to point out the place of payment. If these payments 
should cause a drain on the principal offices of the seaboard, it will 
be compensated by the accumulation of funds at county seats, where 
the contractors on those routes can be paid to that extent by the de- 
partment's drafts, with more local convenience to themselves than 
by drafts on the seaboard offices. 

The legal responsibility for these deposits is defined, and the ac- 
cumulation of funds at the point of deposit, and the repayment at 
points drawn upon, being known to and controlled by the Auditor, 
will not occasion any such embarrassments as were before felt ; the 
record kept by the Auditor on the passing of the certificates through 
his hands will enable him to settle accounts without the delay occa- 
sioned by vouchers being withheld; all doubt or uncertainty as to 
the genuineness of certificates, or the propriety of their issue, will be 
removed by the Auditor's examination and approval ; and there can 
be no risk of loss of funds by transmission, as the certificate will 
not be payable till sanctioned by the Auditor, and after his sanction 
the payor need not pay it unless it is presented by the publisher or 
his known clerk or agent. 

The main principle of equivalent for the agency of the depart- 
ment is secured by the postage required to be paid upon the trans- 
mission of the certificates, augmenting adequately the post-office 
revenue. 

The committee, conceiving that in this report all the difficulties 
of the subject have been fully and fairly stated, and that these diffi- 
culties have been obviated by the plan proposed in the accompany- 
ing bill, and believing that the measure will satisfactorily meet the 
wants and wishes of a very large portion of the community, beg leave 
to recommend its adoption. 



March 9, 1848. — Report in the United States 
House of Representatives. 

Mr. Lincoln, from the Committee on the Post-Office and Post 
Roads, made the following report : 

The Committee on the Post-Office and Post Roads, to whom was 
referi'ed the petition of H. M. Barney, postmaster at Brimfield, Peo- 
ria County, Illinois, report : That they have been satisfied by evi- 
dence, that on the 15th of December, 1847, said petitioner had his 
store, with some fifteen hundred dollars' worth of goods, together 
with aU the papers of the post-office, entirely destroyed by fire ; and 
that the specie funds of the office were melted down, partially lost 
and partially destroyed ; that his large individual loss entirely pre- 
cludes the idea of embezzlement; that the balances due the depart- 
ment of former quarters had been only about twenty-five dollars ; 
and that owing to the destruction of papers, the exact amount due 
for the quarter ending December 31, 1847, cannot be ascertained. 
They therefore report a joint resolution, releasing said petitioner 
from paying anything for the quarter last mentioned. 



116 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



March 24, 1848. — Letter to David Lincoln. 

Washington, March 24, 1848. 
Mr. David Lincoln. 

Dear Sir : Your very worthy representative. Gov. McDowell, has 
given me your name and address, and as my father was born in 
Ro(;kingham, from whence his father, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated 
to Kentucky about the year 1782, I have concluded to address you 
to ascertain whether we are not of the same family. I shall be 
much obliged if you will write me, telling me whether you in any 
way know anything of my grandfather, what relation you are to him, 
and so on. Also, if you know where your family came from when 
they settled in Virginia, tracing them back as far as your knowledge 
extends. Very respectfully, 

A, Lincoln. 



March 29, 1848.— Remarks in the United States 
House of Representatives. 

The bill for raising additional military force for limited time, etc., 
was reported from Committee on Judiciary; similar bills had been 
reported from Committee on Public Lands and Military Committee. 

Mr. Lincoln said if there was a general desu-e on the part of the 
House to pass the bill now he should be glad to have it done — con- 
curring, as he did generally, with the gentleman from Arkansas 
[Mr. Johnson] that the postponement might jeopard the safety of 
the proposition. If, however, a reference was to be made, he wished 
to make a very few remarks in relation to the several subjects desired 
by the gentlemen to be embraced in amendments to the ninth section 
of the act of the last session of Congress. The fii'st amendment de- 
sired by members of this House had for its only object to give bounty 
lands to such persons as had served for a time as privates, but had 
never been discharged as such, because proinoted to office. That 
subject, and no other, was embraced in this bill. There were some 
others who desired, while they were legislating on this subject, that 
they should also give bounty lands to the volunteers of the War of 
1812. His friend from Maryland said there were no such men. He 
[Mr. L.] did not say there were many, but he was very confident 
there were some. His friend from Kentucky near him [Mr. Gaines] 
told him he himself was one. 

There was still another proposition touching this matter ; that 
was, that persons entitled to bounty land should by law be entitled 
to locate these lands in parcels, and not be required to locate them 
in one body, as was provided by the existing law. 

Now he had carefully drawn up a bill embracing these three sepa- 
rate propositions, which he intended to propose as a substitute for 
all these bills in tlie House, or in Committee of the Whole on the 
State of the Union, at some suitable time. If there was a disposition 
on the part of the House to act at once on this separate proposition. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 117 

he repeated that, with the gentlemen from Arkansas, he should pre- 
fer it lest they should lose all. But if there was to be a reference, 
he desired to introduce his bill embracing the three propositions, 
thus enabling the Committee and the House to act at the same time, 
whether favorably or unfavorably, upon all. He inquired whether 
an amendment was now in order. 
The Speaker replied in the negative. 



April 2, 1848. — Letter to David Lincoln. 

Washington, April 2, 1848. 

Bear Sir : Last evening I was much gratified by receiving and 
reading your letter of the 30th of March. There is no longer any 
doubt that your uncle Abraham and my grandfather was the same 
man. His family did reside in Washington County, Kentucky, just 
as you say you found them in 1801 or 1802. The oldest son, Uncle 
Mordeeai, near twenty years ago removed from Kentucky to Han- 
cock County, Illinois, where within a year or two afterward he died, 
and where his surviving children now live. His two sons there now 
are Abraham and Mordeeai ; and their post-office is " La Harpe." 
Uncle Josiah, farther back than my recollection, went from Ken- 
tucky to Blue River in Indiana. I have not heard from him in a 
great many years, and whether he is still living I cannot say. My 
recollection of what I have heard is that he has several daughters 
and only one son, Thomas — their post-office is "Coryden, Harrison 
County, Indiana." My father, Thomas, is still living, in Coles 
County, Illinois, being in the seventy-first year of his age — his 
post-office is "Charleston, Coles County, Illinois" — I am his only 
child. I am now in my fortieth year: and I live in Springfield, 
Sangamon County, Illinois. This is the outline of my grandfa- 
ther's family in the West. 

I think my father has told me that grandfather had four brothers 
— Isaac, Jacob, John, and Thomas. Is that correct? And which 
of them was your father ? Are any of them alive ? I am quite sure 
that Isaac resided on Watauga, near a point where Virginia and Ten- 
nessee join ; and that he has been dead more than twenty, perhaps 
thirty, years ; also that Thomas removed to Kentucky, near Lexing- 
ton, where he died a good while ago. 

What was your grandfather's Christian name ? Was he not a 
Quaker ? About what time did he emigrate from Berks County, 
Pennsylvania, to Virginia ? Do you know anything of your family 
(or rather I may now say our family), farther back than your 
grandfather ? 

If it be not too much trouble to you, I shall be much pleased to 
hear from you again. Be assured t will call on you, should any- 
thing ever bring me near you. I shall give your respects to Gov- 
ernor McDowell as you desire. Very truly yours, 

A. Lincoln. 



118 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



April 30, 1848.— Letter to E. B. Washburne. 

Washington, April 30, 1848. 

Bear Washburne : I have this moment received your very short 
note asking me if old Taylor is to be used up, and who will be the 
nominee. My hope of Taylor's nomination is as high — a little 
higher than it was when you left. Still, the case is by no means 
out of doubt. Mr. Clay's letter has not advanced his interests any 
here. Several who were against Taylor, but not for anybody par- 
ticularly, before, are since taking ground, some for Scott and some 
for McLean. Who will be nominated neither I nor any one else 
can tell. Now, let me pray to you in turn. My prayer is that you 
let nothing discourage or baffle you, but that, in spite of every diffi- 
culty, you send us a good Taylor delegate from your circuit. Make 
Baker, who is now with you, I suppose, help about it. He is a good 
hand to raise a breeze. 

General Ashley, in the Senate from Arkansas, died yesterday. 
Nothing else new beyond what you see in the papers. 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 



April 30, 1848. — Letter to Archibald Williams. 

Washington, April 30, 1848. 

Dear Williams : I have not seen in the papers any evidence of a 
movement to send a delegate from your circuit to the June conven- 
tion. I wish to say that I think it all-important that a delegate 
should be sent. Mr. Clay's chance for an election is just no chance 
at all. He might get New York, and that would have elected in 
1844, but it will not now, because he must now, at the least, lose 
Tennessee, which he had then, and in addition the fifteen new votes 
of Florida, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin. I know our good friend 
Browning is a great admirer of Mr. Clay, and I therefore fear he is 
favoring his nomination. If he is, ask him to discard feeling, and 
try if he can possibly, as a matter of judgment, count the votes ne- 
cessary to elect him. 

In my judgment we can elect nobody but General Taylor ; and we 
cannot elect him without a nomination. Therefore don't fail to send 
a delegate. Your friend as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 



May 11, 1848. — Remarks in the United States 
House of Representatr^es. 

A bill for the admission of Wisconsin into the Union had been 
passed. 

Mr. Lincoln moved to reconsider the vote by which the bill was 
passed. He stated to the House that he had made this motion for 
the purpose of obtaining an opportunity to say a few words in rela- 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 119 

tiou to a point raised in the course of the debate on this bill, which 
he would now proceed to make if in order. The point in the case 
to which he referred arose on the amendment that was submitted 
by the gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Collamer] in Committee of 
the Whole on the state of the Union, and which was afterward re- 
newed in the House, in relation to the question whether the reserved 
sections, which, by some bills heretofore passed, by which an appro- 
priation of land had been made to Wisconsin, had been enhanced in 
value, should be reduced to the minimum price of the public lands. 
The question of the reduction in value of those sections was to him 
at this time a matter very nearly of indifference. He was inclined 
to desire that Wisconsin should be obliged by ha\'ing it reduced. 
But the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. C. B. Smith], the chairman of 
the Committee on Territories, yesterday associated that question 
with the general question, which is now to some extent agitated in 
Congress, of making appropriations of alternate sections of land to 
aid the States in making internal improvements, and enhancing the 
price of the sections reserved ; and the gentleman from Indiana took 
ground against that policy. He did not make any special argument 
in favor of Wisconsin, but he took ground generally against the 
poKcy of giving alternate sections of land, and enhancing the price 
of the reserved sections. Now he [Mr. Lincoln] did not at this time 
take the floor for the purpose of attempting to make an argument 
on the general subject. He rose simply to protest against the doc- 
trine which the gentleman from Indiana had avowed in the course of 
what he [Mr. Lincoln] could not but consider an unsound argument. 

It might, however, be true, for anything he knew, that the gentle- 
man from Indiana might convince him that his argument was sound ; 
but he [Mr. Lincoln] feared that gentleman would not be able to 
convince a majority in Congress that it was sound. It was true the 
question appeared in a different aspect to persons inconsequence of 
a difference in the point from which they looked at it. It did not 
look to persons residing east of the mountains as it did to those who 
lived among the public lands. But, for his part, he would state that 
if Congress would make a donation of alternate sections of public 
land for the purpose of internal improvements in his State, and for- 
bid the reserved sections being sold at $1.25, he should be glad to see 
the appropriation made; though he should prefer it if the reserved 
sections were not enhanced in price. He repeated, he should be ^lad 
to have such appropriations made, even though the reserved sections 
should be enhanced in price. He did not wish to be understood as 
concurring in any intimation that they would refuse to receive such 
an appropriation of alternate sections of land because a condition 
enhancing the price of the reserved sections should be attached 
thereto. He believed his position would now be understood ; if not, 
he feared he should not be able to make himself understood. 

But, before he took his seat he would remark that the Senate 
during the present session had passed a bill making appropriations 
of land on that principle for the benefit of the State in which he re- 
sided — the State of Illinois. The alternate sections were to be given 
for the purpose of constructing roads, and the reserved sections were 



120 ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN 

to be enhanced in value in consequence. When that bill came here 
for the action of this House — it had been received, and was now be- 
fore the Committee on Public Lands — he desii'ed much to see it 
passed as it was, if it could be put in no more favorable form for the 
State of Illinois. When it should be before this House, if any mem- 
ber from a section of the Union in which these lands did not lie, 
whose interest mig-ht be less than that which he felt, should propose 
a reduction of the price of the reserved sections to $1.25, he should 
be much obliged ; but he did not think it would be well for those 
who came from the section of the Union in which the lands lay to 
do so. He wished it, then, to be understood that he did not join in 
the warfare against the princij)le which had engaged the minds of 
some members of Congress who were favorable to the improvements 
in the western country. 

There was a good deal of force, he admitted, in what fell from the 
chairman of the Committee on Territories. It might be that there 
was no precise justice in raising the price of the reserved sections to 
$2.50 per acre. It might be proper that the price should be enhanced 
to some extent, though not to double the usual price; but he should 
be glad to have such an appropriation with the reserved sections at 
$2.50 ; he should be better pleased to have the price of those sections 
at something less ; and he should be still better pleased to have them 
without any enhancement at all. 

There was one portion of the argument of the gentleman from 
Indiana, the chairman of the Committee on Territories [Mr. Smith], 
which he wished to take occasion to say that he did not view as un- 
souud. lie alluded to the statement that the General Government 
was interested in these internal improvements being made, inasmuch 
as they increased the value of the lands that were unsold, and they 
enabled the government to sell the lands which could not be sold 
without them. Thus, then, the government gained by internal im- 
provements as weU as by the general good which the people derived 
from them, and it might be, therefore, that the lands should not be 
sold for more than $1.50 instead of the price being doubled. He, 
however, merely mentioned this in passing, for he only rose to state, 
as the principle of giving these lands for the purposes which he had 
mentioned had been laid hold of and considered favorably, and as 
there were some gentlemen who had constitutional scruples about 
giving money for these purchases who would not hesitate to give 
land, that he was not willing to have it understood that he was one 
of those who made war against that principle. This was all he de- 
sired to say, and having accomplished the object with which he rose, 
he withdrew his motion to reconsider. 



May 21, 1848.— Letter to Rev. J. M. Peck. 

Washington, May 21, 1848. 
Rev. J. M. Peck. 

Bear Sir: On last evening I received a copy of the " Belleville Ad- 
vocate," with the appearance of having been sent by a private hand; 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 121 

and inasmuch as it contained your oration on the occasion of the 
celebrating of the battle of Buena Vista, and is post-marked at Rock 
Spring, I cannot doubt that it is to you I am indebted for this 
courtesy. 

I own that finding in the oration a labored justification of the 
administration on the origin of the Mexican war disappointed me, 
because it is the first effort of the kind I have known made by one 
appearing to me to be intelligent, right-minded, and impartial. It 
is this disappointment that prompts me to address you briefly on 
the subject. I do not propose any extended review. I do not quar- 
rel with facts — brief exhibition of facts. I presume it is correct so 
far as it goes ; but it is so brief as to exclude some facts quite as 
material in my judgment to a just conclusion as any it includes. 
For instance, you say, " Paredes came into power the last of Decem- 
ber, 1845, and from that moment all hopes of avoiding war by nego- 
tiation vanished." A little further on, referring to this and other 
preceding statements, you say, "All this transpired three months 
before G-eneral Taylor marched across the desert of Nueces." These 
two statements are substantially correct ; and you evidently intend 
to have it inferred that General Taylor was sent across the desert in 
consequence of the destruction of aU hopes of peace, in the overthrow 
of Herara by Paredes. Is not that the inference you intend! If 
so, the material fact you have excluded is that General Taylor was 
ordered to cross the desert on the 13th of January, 1846, and be- 
fore the news of Herara's fall reached Washington — before the 
administration which gave the order had any knowledge that Herara 
had fallen. Does not this fact cut up your inference by the roots ? 
Must you not find some other excuse for that order, or give up the 
case "? All that part of the three months you speak of which trans- 
pired after the 13th of January, was expended in the orders going 
from Washington to General Taylor, in his preparations for the 
march, and in the actual march across the desert, and not in the 
President's waiting to hear the knell of peace in the fall of Herara, 
or for any other object. All this is to be found in the very docu- 
ments you seem to have used. 

One other thing. Although you say at one point '' I shall briefly 
exhibit facts, and leave each person to perceive the just application 
of the principles akeady laid down to the case in hand," you very 
soon get to making applications yourself, — in one instance as fol- 
lows : " In view of all the facts, the conviction to my mind is irre- 
sistible that the Government of the United States committed no 
aggression on Mexico." Not in view of all the facts. There are 
facts which j^ou have kept out of view. It is a fact that the United 
States army in marching to the Rio Grande marched into a peace- 
ful Mexican settlement, and frightened the inhabitants away from 
their homes and their growing crops. It is a fact that Fort Brown, 
opposite Matamoras, was built by that army within a Mexican cot- 
ton-field, on which at the time the army reached it a young cotton 
crop was growing, and which crop was whoUy destroyed and the 
field itself greatly and permanently injured by ditches, embank- 
ments, and the like. It is a fact that when the Mexicans captured 



122 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Captain Thornton and his command, they found and captured them 
within another Mexican field. 

Now I wish to bring these facts to your notice, and to ascertain 
what is the result of your reflections upon them. If you deny that 
they are facts, I think I can furnish proof which shall convince you 
that you are mistaken. If you admit that they ai*e facts, then I 
shall be obliged for a reference to any law of language, law of States, 
law of nations, law of morals, law of religions, any law, human or 
divine, in which an authority can be found for saying those facts 
constitute ''no aggression." 

Possibly you consider those acts too small for notice. Would you 
venture to so consider them had they been committed by any nation 
on earth against the humblest of oiu' people ? I know you would not. 
Then I ask, is the precept " Whatsoever ye would that men should 
do to you, do ye even so to them " obsolete ? of no force ? of no ap- 
plication ? 

I shall be pleased if you can find leisure to write me. 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 



June 12, 1848. — Letter to Archibald Williams. 

Washington, June 12, 1848. 

Dear Williams : On my return from Philadelphia, where I had 
been attending the nomination of *' Old Rough," I found your letter 
in a mass of others which had accumulated in my absence. By 
many, and often, it had been said they would not abide the nomina- 
tion of Taylor; but since the deed has been done, they are fast fall- 
ing in, and in my opinion we shall have a most overwhelming, 
glorious triumph. One unmistakable sign is that all the odds and 
ends are with us — Barnburners, Native Americans, Tyler men, dis- 
appointed office-seeking Locofocos, and the Lord knows what. This 
is important, if in nothing else, in showing which way the wind 
blows. Some of the sanguine men have set down all the States as 
certain for Taylor but Illinois, and it as doubtful. Cannot some- 
thing be done even in Illinois ? Taylor's nomination takes the Lo- 
cos on the blind side. It turns the war thunder against them. The 
war is now to them the gallows of Haman, which they built for us, 
and on which they are doomed to be hanged themselves. 

Excuse this short letter. I have so many to write that I cannot 
devote much time to any one. Yours, as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 



June 20, 1848. — Speech in the United States 
House of Representatives. 

In Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union, on the 
Civil and Diplomatic Appropriation Bill: 

Mr. Chairman : I msh at all times in no way to practise any 
fraud upon the House or the committee, and I also desire to do 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 123 

nothing which may be very disagreeable to any of the members. I 
therefore state in advance that my object in taking the floor is 
to make a speech on the general subject of internal improvements; 
and if I am out of order in doing so, I give the chair an oppor- 
tunity of so deciding, and I will take my seat. 

The Chair: I will not undertake to anticipate what the gentle- 
man may say on the subject of internal improvements. He will, 
therefore, proceed in his remarks, and if any question of order 
shall be made, the chair will then decide it. 

Mr. Lincoln : At an early day of this session the President sent 
us what may properly be called an internal improvement veto 
message. The late Democratic convention, which sat at Baltimore, 
and which nominated General Cass for the presidency, adopted a 
set of resolutions, now called the Democratic platform, among 
which is one in these words: 

That the Constitution does not confer upon the General Government 
the power to commence and carry on a general system of internal im- 
provements. 

General Cass, in his letter accepting the nomination, holds this 
language : 

I have carefully read the resolutions of the Democratic National Con- 
vention, laying down the platform of our political faith, and I adhere to 
them as fii-mly as I approve them cordially. 

These things, taken together, show that the question of inter- 
nal improvements is now more distinctly made — has become more 
intense — than at any former period. The veto message and the 
Baltimore resolution I understand to be, in snbstance, the same 
thing; the latter being the more general statement, of which the 
former is the amplification — the bill of particulars. While I know 
there are many Democrats, on this floor and elsewhere, who dis- 
approve that message, I understand that all who shall vote for 
General Cass will thereafter be counted as having approved it, — 
as having indorsed all its doctrines. I suppose all, or nearly all, 
the Democrats will vote for him. Many of them will do so not 
because they like his position on this question, but because they 
prefer him, being wrong on this, to another whom they consider 
farther wrong on other questions. In this way the internal im- 
provement Democrats are to be, by a sort of forced consent, carried 
over and arrayed against themselves on this measure of policy. 
General Cass, once elected, will not trouble himself to make a 
constitutional argument, or perhaps any argument at all, when he 
shall veto a river or harbor bill ; he will consider it a sufficient 
answer to all Democratic murmurs to point to Mr. Polk's message, 
and to the " Democratic Platform." This being the case, the ques- 
tion of improvements is verging to a final crisis ; and the friends 
of this policy must now battle, and battle manfully, or surrender 
all. In this view, humble as I am, I wish to review, and contest 
as well as I may, the general positions of this veto message. When 



124 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I say general positions, I mean to exclude from consideration so 
much as relates to the present embarrassed state of the treasury 
in consequence of the Mexican War. 

Those general positions are : that internal improvements ought 
not to be made by the General Government — First. Because they 
would overwhelm the treasury. Second. Because, while their bur- 
dens would be general, their benefits would be local and partial, in- 
volving an obnoxious inequality; and — Third. Because they would 
be unconstitutional. Foiu'th. Because the States may do enough by 
the levy and collection of tonnage duties ; or if not — Fifth. That 
the Constitution may be amended. " Do nothing at all, lest you do 
something wrong," is the sum of these positions — is the sum of this 
message. And this, with the exception of what is said about con- 
stitutionality, api)lying as forcibly to what is said about making im- 
provements by State authority as by the national authority; so 
that we must abandon the improvements of the country altogether, 
by any and every authority, or we must resist and repudiate the 
doctrines of this message. Let us attempt the latter. 

The first position is, that a system of internal improvements 
would overwhelm the treasury. That in such a system there is a 
tendency to undue expansion, is not to be denied. Such tendency 
is founded in the nature of the subject. A member of Congress will 
prefer voting for a bill which contains an appropriation for his dis- 
trict, to voting for one which does not ; and when a bill shall be ex- 
panded till every district shall be provided for, that it will be too 
greatly expanded is obvious. But is this any more true in Con- 
gress than in a State legislature ? If a member of Congress must 
have an appropriation for his district, so a member of a legislature 
must have one for his county. And if one will overwhelm the na- 
tional treasury, so the other will overwhelm the State treasury. Go 
where we will, the difficulty is the same. Allow it to drive us from 
the halls of Congress, and' it will, just as easily, drive us from the 
State legislatures. Let us, then, grapple with it, and test its 
strength. Let us, judging of the futm^e by the past, ascertain 
whether there may not be, in the discretion of Congress, a suf- 
ficient power to limit and restrain this expansive tendency within 
reasonable and proper bounds. The President himself values the 
evidence of the past. He tells us that at a certain point of our his- 
tory more than two hundred millions of dollars had been applied for 
to make improvements; and this he does to prove that the treasury 
would be overwhelmed by such a system. Why did he not tell us 
how much was granted ? Would not that have been better evidence ? 
Let us turn to it, and see what it proves. In the message the Presi- 
dent tells us that " during the four succeeding years embraced by 
the administration of President Adams, the power not only to ap- 
propriate money, but to apply it, under the direction and authority 
of the General Government, as well to the construction of roads as 
to the improvement of harbors and rivers, was fully asserted and 
exercised." 

This, then, was the period of greatest enormity. These, if any, 
must have been the days of the two hundred millions. And how 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 125 

much do you suppose was really expended for improvements during" 
that four years? Two hundred millions f One hundred? Fifty? 
Ten? Five? No, sir; less than two millions. As shown by authen- 
tic documents, the expenditures on improvements during 1825, 1826, 
1827, and 1828 amounted to one million eight hundred and seventy- 
nine thousand six hundred and twenty-seven dollars one cent. 
These four years were the period of Mr. Adams's administration, 
nearly and substantially. This fact shows that when the power to 
make* improvements " was fully asserted and exercised," the Con- 
gi'ess did keep within reasonable limits j and what has been done, it 
seems to me, can be done again. 

Now for the second portion of the message — namely, that the l)ur- 
dens of improvements would be general, while their benefits would 
be local and partial, involving an obnoxious inequality. That there 
is some degree of truth in this position, I shall not deny. No com- 
mercial object of government patronage can be so exclusively gen- 
eral as to not be of some peculiar local advantage. The navy, as I 
understand it, was established, and is maintained at a great annual 
exj)ense, partly to be ready for war wheu war shall come, and partly 
also, and perhaps chiefly, for the protection of our commerce on the 
high seas. This latter object is, for all I can see, in principle the 
same as internal improvements. The driving a pirate from the track 
of commerce on the broad ocean, and the removing a snag from its 
more narrow path in the Mississippi River, cannot, I think, be dis- 
tinguished in princiiDle. Each is done to save life and property, and 
for nothing else. 

The navy, then, is the most general in its benefits of all this class 
of objects ; and yet even the navy is of some peculiar advantage to 
Charleston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, bej^oud 
what it is to the interior towns of Illinois. The next most general 
object I can think of would be improvements on the Mississippi 
River and its tributaries. They touch thirteen of our States — Penn- 
sylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Ar- 
kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Now 
I suppose it will not be denied that these thirteen States are a little 
more interested in improvements on that great river than are the 
remaining seventeen. These instances of the navy and the Missis- 
sippi River show clearly that there is something of local advantage 
in the most general objects. But the converse is also true. Nothing 
is so local as to not be of some general benefit. Take, for instance, 
the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Considered apart from its effects, 
it is perfectly local. Every inch of it is within the State of Illinois. 
That canal was first opened for business last April. In a very few 
days we were all gratified to learn, among other things, that sugar 
had been carried from New Orleans through this canal to Buffalo 
in New York. This sugar took this route, doubtless, because it was 
cheaper than the old route. Supposing benefit of the reduction in 
the cost of carriage to be shared between seller and buyer, the result 
is that the New Orleans merchant sold his sugar a little dearer, and 
the people of Buffalo sweetened their coffee a little cheaper, than 
before, — a benefit resulting from the canal, not to Illinois, where the 



126 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

canal is, but to Louisiana and New York, where it is not. In other 
transactions Illinois will, of course, have her share, and perhaps the 
larger share too, of the benefits of the canal ; but this instance of the 
sugar clearly shows that the benefits of an improvement are by no 
means confined to the particular locality of the improvement itself. 

The just conclusion from all this is that if the nation refuse to 
make improvements of the more general kind because their benefits 
may be somewhat local, a State may for the same reason refuse to 
make an improvement of a local kind because its benefits may be 
somewhat general. A State may well say to the nation, " If you will 
do nothing for me, I will do nothing for you." Thus it is seen 
that if this argument of " inequality " is sufficient anywhere, it is 
sufficient everywhere, and puts an end to improvements altogether. 
I hope and believe that if both the nation and the States would, in 
good faith, in their respective spheres do what they could in the 
way of improvements, what of inequality might be produced in one 
place might be compensated in another, and the sum of the whole 
might not be very unequal. 

But suppose, after all, there should be some degree of inequality. 
Inequality is certainly never to be embraced for its own sake ; but is 
every good thing to be discarded which may be inseparably connected 
with some degree of it? If so, we must discard all government. 
This Capitol is built at the public expense, for the public benefit ; 
but does any one doubt that it is of some peculiar local advantage to 
the property-holders and business people of Washington? Shall we 
remove it for this reason? And if so, where shall we set it down, 
and be free from the difficulty? To make sure of our object, shall 
we locate it nowhere, and have Congress hereafter to hold its ses- 
sions, as the loafer lodged, " in spots about " ? I make no allusion 
to the present President when I say there are few stronger cases in 
this world of ^' burden to the many and benefit to the few," of " in- 
equality," than the presidency itself is by some thought to be. An 
honest laborer digs coal at about seventy cents a day, while the Presi- 
dent digs abstractions at aboTit seventy dollars a day. The coal is 
clearly worth more than the abstractions, and yet what a monstrous 
inequality in the prices! Does the President, for this reason, propose 
to abolish the presidency ? He does not, and he ought not. The true 
rule, in determining to embrace or reject anything, is not whether it 
have any evil in it, but whether it have more of evil than of good. 
There are few things wholly evil or whoUy good. Almost evei*y- 
tliing, especially of government policy, is an inseparable compound 
of the two; so that our best judgment of the preponderance between 
them is continually demanded. On this principle the President, his 
friends, and the world generally act on most subjects. Why not ap- 
ply it, then, upon this question? Why, as to improvements, magnify 
the evil, and stoutly refuse to see any good in them ? 

Mr. Chairman, on the third position of the message — the consti- 
tutional question — I have not much to say. Being the man I am, 
and speaking where I do, I feel that in any attempt at an original 
constitutional argument, I should not be, and ought not to be, lis- 
tened to patientl3^ The ablest and the best of men have gone over 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 127 

the whole ground long ago. I shall attempt but little more than a 
brief notice of what some of them have said. In relation to Mr. Jeffer- 
son's views, I read from Mr. Polk's veto message: 

President Jefferson, in his message to Congi-ess in 1806, recommended an 
amendment of the Constitution, with a view to apply an anticipated surplus 
in the Treasuxy " to the great purposes of the public education, roads, I'ivers, 
canals, and such other objects of pubhc improvements as it may be thought 
proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of the federal powers" ; and 
he adds: "I suppose an amendment to the Constitution, by consent of the 
States, necessary, because the objects now recommended are not among 
those enumerated in the Constitution, and to which it permits the public 
moneys to be applied." In 1825, he repeated in his pubhshed letters the 
opinion that no such power has been conferred upon Congress. 

I introduce this not to controvert just now the constitutional 
opinion, but to show that, on the question of expediency, Mr. Jeffer- 
son's opinion was against the present President — that this opinion 
of Mr. Jefferson, in one branch at least, is in the hands of Mr. Polk 
like McFingal's gun — "bears wide and kicks the owner over." 

But to the constitutional question. In 1826 Chancellor Kent first 
published his " Commentaries" on American law. He devoted a por- 
tion of one of the lectures to the question of the authority of Con- 
gress to appropriate public moneys for internal improvements. He 
mentions that the subject had never been brought under judicial 
consideration, and proceeds to give a brief summary of the discussion 
it had undergone between the legislative and executive branches of 
the government. He shows that the legislative branch had usually 
been for, and the executive against, the power, till the period of Mr. 
J. Q. Adams's administration, at which point he considers the execu- 
tive influence as withdrawn from opposition, and added to the sup- 
port of the power. In 1844 the chancellor published a new edition 
of his '* Commentaries," in which he adds some notes of what had 
transpired on the question since 1826. I have not time to read the 
original text on the notes ; but the whole may be found on page 267, 
and the two or three following pages, of the first volume of the edi- 
tion of 1844. As to what Chancellor Kent seems to consider the 
sum of the whole, I read from one of the notes : 

Mr, Justice Story, in his commentaries on the Constitution of the United 
States, Vol. II., pp. 429^40, and again pp. 519-538, has stated at large the 
arguments for and against the proposition that Congi'ess have a constitu- 
tional authority to lay taxes, and to apply the power to regulate commerce 
as a means directly to encourage and protect domestic manufactures; and 
without gi\4ng any opinion of his own on the contested doctrine, he has left 
the reader to draw his own conclusions. I should think, however, from the 
arguments as stated, that every mind which has taken no part in the discus- 
sion, and felt no prejudice or territorial bias on either side of the question, 
would deem the arguments in favor of the Congressional power vastly 
superior. 

It will be seen that in this extract the power to make improve 
ments is not directly mentioned; but by examining the context 
both of Kent and Story, it will be seen that the power mentionev'' 



128 ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

in the extract, and the power to make improvements, are regarded 
as identical. It is not to be denied that many great and good men 
have been against the power; but it is insisted that quite as many, 
as great and as good, have been for it ; and it is shown that, on a 
full survey of the whole. Chancellor Kent was of opinion that the 
arguments of the latter were vastly superior. This is but the opin- 
ion of a man ; but who was that man ? He was one of the ablest 
and most learned lawyers of his age, or of any age. It is no dispar- 
agement to Mr. Polk, nor indeed to any one who devotes much time 
to politics, to be placed far behind Chancellor Kent as a lawyer. 
His attitude was most favorable to correct conclusions. He wrote 
coolly, and in retirement. He was struggling to rear a durable 
monument of fame ; and he well knew that truth and thoroughly 
sound reasoning were the only sure foundations. Can the party 
opinion of a party President on a law question, as this purely is, 
be at all compared or set in opposition to that of such a man, in 
such an attitude, as Chancellor Kent 1 This constitutional question 
will probably never be better settled than it is, until it shall pass 
under judicial consideration ; but I do think no man who is clear on 
the questions of expediency need feel his conscience much pricked 
upon this. 

Mr. Chau-man, the President seems to think that enough may be 
done, in the way of improvements, by means of tonnage duties un- 
der State authority, with the consent of the General Government. 
Now I suppose this matter of tonnage duties is well enough in its 
own sphere. I suppose it may be efficient, and perhaps sufficient, to 
make slight improvements and repairs in harbors already in use 
and not much out of repair. But if I have any correct general idea 
of it, it must be wholly inefficient for any general beneficent pur- 
poses of improvement. I know very little, or rather nothing at all, 
of the practical matter of levying and collecting tonnage duties; 
but I suppose one of its principles must be to lay a duty for the im- 
provement of any particular harbor upon the tonnage coming into 
that harbor; to do otherwise — to collect money in one harbor, to be 
expended on improvements in another — would be an extremely 
aggravated form of that inequality which the President so much 
deprecates. If I be right in this, how could we make any entirely 
new improvement by means of tonnage duties ? How make a road, 
a canal, or clear a greatly obstructed river ? The idea that we could 
involves the same absurdity as the Irish bull about the new boots. 
" I shall niver git 'em on," says Patrick, " till I wear 'em a day or 
two, and stretch 'em a little." We shall never make a canal by 
tonnage duties until it shall already have been made awhile, so the 
tonnage can get into it. 

After all, the President concludes that possibly there may be some 
great objects of improvement which cannot be effected by tonnage 
duties, and which it therefore may be expedient for the General Gov- 
ernment to take in hand. Accordingly he suggests, in case any such 
be discovered, the propriety of amending the Constitution. Amend 
it for what ? If, like Mr. Jefferson, the President thought improve- 
ments expedient, but not constitutional, it would be natural enough 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 129 

for him to recommend such an amendment. But hear what he says 
in this very message : 

In view of these portentous consequences, I cannot but think that this 
course of legislation should be arrested, even were there nothing to forbid 
it in the fundamental laws of our Union. 

For what, then, would he have the Constitution amended ? With 
him it is a proposition to remove one impediment merely to be met 
by others which, in his opinion, cannot be removed, — to enable 
C*ongi*ess to do what, in his opinion, they ought not to do if they 
could. 

Here Mr. Meade of Virginia inquired if Mr. Lincoln understood 
the President to be opposed, on grounds of expediency, to any and 
every improvement. 

Mr. Lincoln answered : In the very part of his message of which 
I am speaking, I understand him as giving some vague expression 
in favor of some possible objects of improvement; but in doing so 
I understand him to be directly on the teeth of his own arguments 
in other parts of it. Neither the President nor any one can possibly 
specify an improvement which shall not be clearly liable to one or 
another of the objections he has urged on the score of expediency. 
I have shown, and might show again, that no work — no object — 
can be so general as to dispense its benefits with precise equality; 
and this inequality is chief among the "portentous consequences" 
for which he declares that improvements should be arrested. No, 
sir. When the President intimates that something in the way of 
improvements may properly be done by the General Government, 
he is shrinking from the conclusions to which his own arguments 
would force him. He feels that the improvements of this broad 
and goodly land are a mighty interest ; and he is unwilling to con- 
fess to the people, or perhaps to himself, that he has built an ar- 
gument which, when pressed to its conclusions, entirely annihilates 
this interest. 

I have already said that no one who is satisfied of the expe- 
diency of making improvements needs be much uneasy in his con- 
science about its constitutionality. I wish now to submit a few 
remarks on the general proposition of amending the Constitution. 
As a general rule, I think we would much better let it alone. 
No slight occasion should tempt us to touch it. Better not take 
the first step, which may lead to a habit of altering it. Better, 
rather, habituate ourselves to think of it as unalterable. It can 
scarcely be made better than it is. New provisions would intro- 
duce new difficulties, and thus create and increase appetite for 
further change. No, sir; let it stand as it is. New hands have 
never touched it. The men who made it have done their work, 
and have passed away. Who shall improve on what they did? 

Mr. Chairman, for the purpose of reviewing this message in the 
least possible time, as well as for the sake of distinctness, I have 
analyzed its arguments as well as I could, and reduced them to 
the propositions I have stated. I have now examined them in 
detail. I wish to detain the committee only a little while longer 
Vol. I.— 9. 



130 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

with some general remarks upon the subject of improvements. 
That the subject is a difficult one, cannot be denied. Still it is 
no more difficult in Congress than in the State legislatures, in the 
counties, or in the smallest municipal districts which anywhere ex- 
ist. All can recur to instances of this difficulty in the case of 
county roads, bridges, and the like. One man is offended because 
a road passes over his land, and another is offended because it 
does not pass over his ; one is dissatisfied because the bridge for 
which he is taxed crosses the river on a different road from that 
which leads from his house to town; another cannot bear that 
the county should be got in debt for these same roads and 
bridges; while not a few struggle hard to have roads located 
over their lands, and then stoutly refuse to let them be opened 
until they are first paid the damages. Even between the different 
wards and streets of towns and cities we find this same wrangling 
and difficulty. Now these are no other than the very difficulties 
against which^ and out of which, the President constructs his ob- 
jections of " inequality," '* speculation," and " crushing the trea- 
sury." There is but a single alternative about them : they are 
sufficient, or they are not. If sufficient, they are sufficient out of 
Congress as well as in it, and there is the end. We must reject 
them as insufficient, or lie down and do nothing by any author- 
ity. Then, difficulty though there be, let us meet and encounter 
it. "Attempt the end, and never stand to doubt; nothing so 
hard, but search will find it out." Determine that the thing can 
and shaU be done, and then we shall find the way. The tendency 
to undue expansion is imquestionably the chief difficulty. 

How to do something, and still not do too much, is the desidera- 
tum. Let each contribute his mite in the way of suggestion. The 
late Silas Wright, in a letter to the Chicago convention, contributed 
his, which was worth something; and I now contribute mine, which 
may be worth nothing. At all events, it will mislead nobody, and 
therefore will do no harm. I would not borrow money. I am 
against an overwhelming, crushing system. Suppose that, at each 
session. Congress shall first determine how much money can, for that 
year, be spared for improvements; then apportion that sum to the 
most important objects. So far all is easy; but how shall we de- 
termine which ai'e the most important? On this question comes the 
collision of interests. I shall be slow to acknowledge that your har- 
bor or your river is more important than mine, and vice versa. To 
clear this difficulty, let us have that same statistical information 
which the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Vinton] suggested at the be- 
ginning of this session. In that information we shall have a stern, 
unbending basis of facts — a basis in no wise subject to whim, 
caprice, or local interest. The pre-limited amount of means will save 
us from doing too much, and the statistics will save us from doing 
what we do in wrong places. Adopt and adhere to this course, and, 
it seems to me, the difficulty is cleared. 

One of the gentlemen from South Cai'olina [Mr. Rhett] very much 
deprecates these statistics. He particularly objects, as I understand 
him, to counting all the pigs and chickens in the land. I do not per- 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 131 

ceive much force in the objection. It is true that if everything be 
enumerated, a portion of such statistics may not be very useful to 
this object. Such products of the country as are to be consumed 
where they are produced need no roads or rivers, no means of trans- 
portation, and have no very proper connection with this subject. 
The surplus — that which is produced in one place to be consumed 
in another ; the capacity of each locality for producing a greater sur- 
plus; the natural means of transportation, and their susceptibility 
of improvement ; the hindrances, delays, and losses of life and prop- 
erty during transportation, and the causes of each, would be among 
the most valuable statistics in this connection. From these it would 
readily appear where a given amount of expenditure would do the 
most good. These statistics might be equally accessible, as they 
would be equally useful, to both the nation and the States. In this 
way, and by these means, let the nation take hold of the larger works, 
and the States the smaller ones ; and thus, working in a meeting di- 
rection, discreetly, but steadily and firmly, what is made unequal in 
one place may be equalized in another, extravagance avoided, and 
the whole country put on that career of prosperity which shall cor- 
respond with its extent of territory, its natural resources, and the 
intelligence and enterprise of its people. 



June 22, 1848. — Letter to William H. Herndon. 

Washington, June 22, 1848. 
Dear WUliam : Last night I was attending a sort of caucus of the 
Whig members, held in relation to the coming presidential election. 
The whole field of the nation was scanned, and all is high hope and 
confidence. Illinois is expected to better her condition in this race. 
Under these circumstances, judge how heartrending it was to come 
to my room and find and read your discouraging letter of the 15th. 
We have made no gains, but have lost " H. R. Robinson, Turner, 
Campbell, and four or five more." Tell Aimey to reconsider, if he 
would be saved. Baker and I used to do something, but I think 
you attach more importance to our absence than is just. There is 
another cause. In 1840, for instance, we had two senators and five 
representatives in Sangamon; now we have part of one senator and 
two representatives. With quite one third more people than we had 
then, we have only haK the sort of offices which are sought by men 
of the speaking sort of talent. This, I think, is the chief cause. 
Now, as to the young men. You must not wait to be brought for- 
ward by the older men. For instance, do you suppose that I should 
ever have got into notice if I had waited to be hunted up and pushed 
forward by older men "? You young men get together and form a 
" Rough and Ready Club," and have regular meetings and speeches. 
Take in everybody you can get. Harrison Grimsley, L. A. Enos, 
Lee Kimball, and C. W. Matheny will do to begin the thing ; but as 
you go along gather up all the shrewd, wild boys about town, 
whether just of age or a little under age, — Chris. Logan, Reddick 
Ridgely, Lewis Zwizler, and hundreds such. Let every one play the 



132 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

part he can play best, — some speak, some sing, and all "holler." 
Your meetings will be of evenings ; the older men, and the women, 
will go to hear you ; so that it will not only contribute to the elec- 
tion of '* Old Zach," but will be an interesting pastime, and improv- 
ing to the intellectual faculties of all engaged. Don't fail to do this. 

You ask me to send you all the speeches made about " Old Zach," 
the war, etc. Now this makes me a little impatient. I have regu- 
larly sent you the " Congressional Globe " and ''Appendix," and you 
cannot have examined them, or you would have discovered that they 
contain every speech made by every man in both houses of Congress, 
on every subject, during the session. Can I send any more? Can 
I send speeches that nobody has made ? Thinking it would be most 
natural that the newspapers would feel interested to give at least 
some of the speeches to their readers, I at the beginning of the ses- 
sion made arrangements to have one copy of the " Globe " and "Ap- 
pendix " regularly sent to each "Whig paper of the district. And 
vet, with the exception of my own little speech, which was pub- 
lished in two only of the then five, now four. Whig papers, I do not 
remember having seen a single speech, or even extract from one, 
in any single one of those papers. With equal and full means on 
both sides, I will venture that the " State Register " has thrown be- 
fore its readers more of Locofoco speeches in a month than all 
the Whig papers of the district have done of Whig speeches during 
the session. 

If yon wish a full understanding of the war, I repeat what I 
believe I said to you in a letter once before, that the whole, or 
nearly so, is to be found in the speech of Dixon of Connecticut. 
This I sent you in pamphlet as well as in the "Globe." Examine 
and study every sentence of that speech thoroughly, and you will 
understand the whole subject. You ask how Congress came to de- 
clare that war had existed by the act of Mexico. Is it possible you 
don't understand that yet ? You have at least twenty speeches in 
your possession that fully explain it. I avlU, however, try it once 
more. The news reached Washington of the commencement of hos- 
tilities on the Rio Grande, and of the great peril of General Taylor's 
army. Everybody, Whigs and Democrats, was for sending them aid, 
in men and money. It was necessary to pass a bill for this. The 
Locos had a majority in both houses, and they brought in a bill with 
a preamble saying: Whereas, War exists by the act of Mexico, 
therefore we send General Taylor money. The Whigs moved to 
strike out the preamble, so that they could vote to send the men and 
money, without saying anything about how the war commenced ; 
but being in the minority, they were voted down, and the preamble 
was retained. Then, on the passage of the bill, the question came 
upon them, Shall we vote for preamble and bill together, or against 
both together ? They did not want to vote against sending help to 
General Taylor, and therefore they voted for both together. Is 
there any difficulty in understanding this I Even my little speech 
shows how this was ; and if you will go to the library, you may get 
the "Journal" of 1845-46, in which you will find the whole for 
yourself. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 133 

We have nothing published yet with special reference to the 
Taylor race ; but we soon will have, and then I will send them to 
everybody. I made an internal-improvement speech day before yes- 
terday, which I shall send home as soon as I can get it written out 
and printed, — and which I suppose nobody will read. 

Your friend as ever, A. Lincoln. 

June 27, 1848. — Letter to Horace Greeley. 

Washington, June 27, 1848. 

Friend GreeJet/: In the '' Tribune "of yesterday I discovered a lit- 
tle editorial paragraph in relation to Colonel Wentworth of Illinois, 
in which, in relation to the boundary of Texas, you say: ''All Whigs 
and many Democrats having ever contended it stopped at the 
Nueces." Now this is a mistake which I dislike to see go uncorrected 
in a leading Whig paper. Since I have been here, I know a large 
majority of such Whigs of the House of Representatives as have 
spoken on the question have not taken that position. Theu* position, 
and in my opinion the true position, is that the boundary of Texas 
extended just so far as American settlements taking part in her revo- 
lution extended; and that as a matter of fact those settlements did 
extend, at one or two points, beyond the Nueces, but not anywhere 
near the Rio Grande at any point. The "stupendous desert" be- 
tween the valleys of those two rivers, and not either river, has been 
insisted on by the Whigs as the true boundary. 

Will you look at this ? By putting us in the position of insisting 
on the line of the Nueces, you put us in a position which, in my 
opinion, we cannot maintain, and which therefore giv^es the Demo- 
crats an advantage of us. If the degree of arrogance is not too great, 
may I ask you to examine what I said on this very point in the 
printed speech I send you. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

June 28, 1848. — Remarks in the United States 
House of Representatives. 

Discussion as to salary of judge of western Virginia. — Wishing 
to increase it fi-om $1800' to $2500. 

Mr. Lincoln said he felt unwilling to be either unjust or ungener- 
ous, and he wanted to understand the real ease of this judicial offi- 
cer. The gentleman from Virginia had stated that he had to hold 
eleven courts. Now everybody knew that it was not the habit of 
the district judges of the United States in other States to hold any- 
thing like that number of courts ; and he therefore took it for 
granted that this must happen under a peculiar law which required 
that large number of courts to be holden every year; and these 
laws, he further supposed, were passed at the request of the people 
of that judicial district. It came, then, to this: that the people in 
the western district of Virginia had got eleven courts to be held 
among them in one year, for their own accommodation; and being 



134 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

thus better accommodated than their neighbors elsewhere, they 
wanted their judge to be a little better paid. In Illinois there had 
been, until the present season, but one district court held in the year. 
There were now to be two. Could it be that the western district of 
Virginia furnished more business for a judge than the whole State 
of niinois? 

[Julyl?] 1848.— Fragment. 

The following paper was written by Lincoln in 1848 as being what 
he thought General Taylor ought to say: 

The question of a national bank is at rest. "Were I President, I 
should not urge its reagitation upon Congress ; but should Congress 
see fit to pass an act to establish such an institution, I should not 
arrest it by the veto, unless I should consider it subject to some con- 
stitutional objection from which I believe the two former banks to 
have been free. 

It appears to me that the national debt created by the war renders 
a modification of the existing tariff indispensable; and when it shall 
be modified I should be pleased to see it adjusted with a due refer- 
ence to the protection of our home industry. The particulars, it ap- 
pears to me, must and should be left to the untrammeled discretion 
of Congress. 

As to the Mexican war, I still think the defensive line policy the 
best to terminate it. In a final treaty of peace, we shall probably 
be under a sort of necessity of taking some territory ; but it is my 
desire that we shall not acquire any extending so far south as to 
enlarge and aggravate the distracting question of slavery. Should 
I come into the presidency before these questions shall be settled, I 
should act in relation to them in accordance with the views here 
expressed. •- - 

Finally,! were I President, I should desire the legislation of the 
country to rest with Cougi'css, uninfluenced by the executive in its 
\/ origin or progress, and undisturbed by the veto unless in very 
special and clear cases^ 



July 10, 1848.— Letter to William H. Herndon. 

Washington, July 10, 1848. 
Bear William : Your letter covering the newspaper slips was re- 
ceived last night. The subject of that letter is exceedingly painful 
to me ; and I cannot but think there is some mistake in your im- 
pression of the motives of the old men. I suppose I am now one 
of the old men ; and I declare, on my veracity, which I think is good 
with you, that nothing could afford me more satisfaction than to 
learn that you and others of my young friends at home are doing 
battle in the contest, and endearing themselves to the people, and 
taking a stand far above any I have ever been able to reach in their 
admiration. I cannot conceive that other old men feel differently. 
Of course I cannot demonstrate what I say ; but I was young once, 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 135 

and I am sure I was never ungenerously thrust back. I hardly 
know what to say. The way for a young man to rise is to improve 
himself every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to 
hinder him. Allow me to assure you that suspicion and jealousy 
never did help any man in any situation. There may sometimes be 
ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down ; and they will 
succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel 
to brood over the attempted injury. Cast about, and see if this 
feeling has not injured every person you have ever known to fall 
into it. 

Now, in what I have said, I am sure you will suspect nothing but 
sincere friendship. I would save you from a fatal error. You have 
been a laborious, studious young man. You are far better informed 
on almost all subjects than I have ever been. You cannot fail in 
any laudable object, unless you allow your mind to be improperly 
du'ected. I have somewhat the advantage of ^ou in the world's ex- 
perience, merely by being older ; and it is this that induces me to 
advise. You still seem to be a little mistaken about the " Congres- 
sional Globe " and " Appendix." They contain all of the speeches 
that are published in any way. My speech and Dayton's speech, 
which you say you got in pamphlet form, are both, word for word, 
in the " Appendix." I repeat again, all are there. 

Your friend, as ever, A. Lincoln. 

July 27, 1848. — Speech in the United States House op 
Representatives. 

Oeneral Taylor and the Veto. 

Mr. Speaker, our Democratic friends seem to be in great distress 
because they think our candidate for the presidency don't suit us. 
Most of them cannot find out that General Taylor has any principles 
at all ; some, however, have discovered that he has one, but that one 
is entirely wrong. This one principle is his position on the veto 
power. The gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Stanton] who has just 
taken his seat, indeed, has said there is very little, if any, difference 
on this question between General Taylor and all the presidents ; and 
he seems to think it sufficient detraction from General Tayloi^'s posi- 
tion on it that it has nothing new in it. But all others whom I have 
heard speak assail it furiously. A new member from Kentucky 
[Mr. Clark], of very considerable ability, was in particular concerned 
about it. He thought it altogether novel and unprecedented for a 
president or a presidential candidate to think of approving bills 
whose constitutionality may not be entirely clear to his own mind. 
He thinks the ark of our safety is gone unless presidents shall 
always veto such bills as in their judgment may be of doubtful con- 
stitutionality. However clear Congress may be on their authority 
to pass any particular act, the gentleman from Kentucky thinks the 
President must veto it if he has doubts about it. Now I have 
neither time nor inclination to argue with the gentleman on the 
veto power as an original question ; but I wish to show that General 



136 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Taylor, and not he^ agrees with the earlier statesmen on this ques- 
tion. When the bill chartering the first Bank of the United States 
passed Congress, its constitutionality was questioned. Mr. Madison, 
then in the House of Representatives, as well as others, had opposed 
it on that ground. General Washington, as President, was called 
on to approve or reject it. He sought and obtained on the con- 
stitutionality question the separate written opinions of Jefferson, 
Hamilton, and Edmund Randolph, — they then being respectively 
Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, and Attorney-General. 
Hamilton's opinion was for the power ; while Randolph's and Jeffer- 
son's were both against it. Mr. Jefferson, after giving his opinion 
deciding only against the constitutionality of the bill, closes his letter 
with the paragraph which I now read : 

It must be admitted, however, that unless the President's mind, on a view 
of everything which is urged for and against this bill, is tolerably clear 
that it is unauthorized by the Constitution, — if the jjro and con. hang so even 
as to balance his judgment, — a just respect for the wisdom of the legisla- 
ture would naturaUy decide the balance in favor of their opinion. It is 
cliiefly for cases where they are clearly misled by eiTor, ambition, or interest, 
that the Constitution has placed a check in the negative of the President. 

February 15, 1791. Thomas Jefferson. 

General Taylor's opinion, as expressed in his Allison letter, is as 
I now read : 

The power given by the veto is a high conservative power ; but, iu my 
opinion, should never be exercised except in cases of clear violation of the 
Constitution, or manifest haste and want of consideration by Congress. 

It is here seen that, in Mr. Jefferson's opinion, if on the constitu- 
tionality of any given bill the President doubts, he is not to veto it, 
as the gentleman from Kentucky would have him do, but is to 
defer to Congress and approve it. And if we compare the opinion 
of Jefferson and Taylor, as expressed in these paragraphs, we shall 
find them more exactly alike than we can often find any two expres- 
sions having any literal difference. None but interested faultfinders, 
I think, can discover any substantial variation. 

Taylor on Measures of Policy. 

But gentlemen on the other side are unanimously agreed that 
General Taylor has no other principles. They are in utter darkness 
as to his opinions on any of the questions of policy which occupy 
the public attention. But is there any doubt as to what he will do 
on the prominent questions if elected ? Not the least. It is not pos- 
sible to know what he wiU or would do in every imaginable case, 
because many questions have passed away, and others doubtless will 
arise which none of us have yet thought of ; but on the prominent 
questions of currency, tariff, internal improvements, and Wilmot 
proviso. General Tavlor's course is at least as well defined as is Gen- 
eral Cass's. Why, in their eagerness to get at General Taylor, sev- 
eral Democratic members here have desired to know whether, in 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 137 

case of his election, a bankrupt law is to be established. Can they 
tell us General Cass's opinion on this question ? [Some member an- 
swered, " He is against it."] Aye, how do you know he is? There 
is nothing about it in the platform, nor elsewhere, that I have seen. 
If the gentleman knows of anything which I do not, he can show it. 
But to return. General Taylor, in his Allison letter, says : 

Upon the subject of the tariff, the cuiTency, the improvement of our 
great highways, rivers, lakes, aud harbors, the will of the people, as ex- 
pressed through their representatives in Congress, ought to be respected 
and carried out by the executive. 

Now this is the whole matter. In substance, it is this. The peo- 
ple say to General Taylor, " If you are elected, shall we have a na- 
tional bank?" He answers, "Your will, gentlemen, not mine." 
" What about the tariff ? " ^' Say yourselves." '^ Shall our rivers 
and harbors be improved ? " " Just as you please. If you desire a 
bank, an alteration of the tariff, internal improvements, any or all, 
I will not hinder you. If you do not desire them, I will not attempt 
to force them on you. Send up your members of Congress from 
the various districts, with opinions according to your own, and if 
they are for these measures, or any of them, I shall have nothing to 
oppose; if they are not for them, I shall not, by any appliances 
whatever, attempt to dragoon them into their adoption." Now can 
there be any difficulty in understanding this? To you Democrats 
it may not seem like principle ; but surely you cannot fail to perceive 
the position plainly enough. The distinction between it and the 
position of your candidate is broad and obvious ; and I admit you 
have a clear right to show it is wrong if you can ; but you have no 
right to pretend you cannot see it at all. We see it, and to us it 
appears like principle, and the best sort of principle at that — the 
principle (^^ allowing the people to do as they please with their own 
business. ( My friend from Indiana [C. B. Smith] has aptly asked, 
" Are you willing to trust the people ? " Some of you answered sub- 
stantially, ''We are willing to trust the people; but the President 
is as much the representative of the people as Congress." In a cer- 
tain sense, and to a certain extent, he is the representative of the 
people. He is elected by them, as weU as Congress is ; but can he, 
in the nature of things, know the wants of the people as well as 
three hundred other men, coming from all the various localities of 
the nation ? If so, where is the propriety of having a Congress ? 
That the Constitution gives the President a negative on legisla- 
tion, all know ; but that this negative should be so combined with 
platforms and other appliances as to enable him, and in fact al- 
most compel him, to take the whole of legislation into his own 
hands, is what we object to^is what General Taylor objects to, 
and is what constitutes ffie~broad distinction between you and us. 
To thus transfer legislation is clearly to take it from those who un- 
derstand with minuteness the interests of the people, and give it 
to one who does not and cannot so well understand it. I understand 
your idea that if a presidential candidate avow his opinion upon a 
given question, or rather upon all questions, and the people, with 



138 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

full knowledge of this, elect him, they thereby distinctly approve 
all those opinions. By means of it, measures are adopted or rejected 
contrary to the wishes of the whole of one party, and often nearly- 
half of the other. Three, four, or half a dozen questions are promi- 
nent at a given time ; the party selects its candidate, and he takes 
his position on each of these questions. On all but one his positions 
have already been indorsed at former elections, and his party fully 
committed to them ; but that one is new, and a large portion of 
them are against it. But what are they to do? The whole was 
strung together ; and they must take all, or reject all. They cannot 
take what they like, and leave the rest. "What they are already 
committed to bein^ the majority, they shut their eyes, and gulp the 
whole. Next election, still another is introduced in the same way. 
If we run our eyes along the line of the past, we shall see that al- 
most if not quite all the articles of the present Democratic creed 
have been at first forced upon the party in this very way. And just 
now, and just so, opposition to internal improvements is to be estab- 
lished if General Cass shall be elected. Almost half the Democrats 
here are for improvements ; but they will vote for Cass, and if he 
succeeds, their vote will have aided in closing the doors against im- 
provements. Now this is a process which we think is wrong. We 
prefer a candidate who, like General Taylor, will allow the people 
to have their own way, regardless of his private opinions ; and I 
should think the internal-improvement Democrats, at least, ought 
to prefer such a candidate. He would force nothing on them which 
they don't want, and he would allow them to have improvements 
which their own candidate, if elected, will not. 

Mr. Speaker, I have said General Tayloi*'s position is as well de- 
fined as is that of General Cass. In saying this, I admit I do not 
certainly know what he would do on the Wilmot proviso. I am a 
Northern man, or rather a Western free-State man, with a constitu- 
ency I believe to be, and with personal feelings I know to be, against 
the extension of slavery. As such, and with what information I 
have, I hope and believe General Taylor, if elected, would not veto 
the proviso. But I do not know it. Yet if I knew he would, I still 
would vote for him. I should do so because, in my judgment, his 
election alone can defeat General Cass ; and because, should slavery 
thereby go to the territory we now have, just so much will certainly 
happen by the election of Cass, and, in addition a course of policy 
leading to new wars, new acquisitions of territory and still further 
extensions of slavery. One of the two is to be President. Which 
is preferable ? 

But there is as much doubt of Cass on improvements as there is 
of Taylor on the proviso. I have no doubt myself of General Cass 
on this question; but I know the Democrats differ among them- 
selves as to his position. My internal-improvement colleague [Mr. 
Wentworth] stated on this floor the other day that he was satisfied 
Cass was for improvements, because he had voted for all the bills that 
he [Mr. Wentworth] had. So far so good. But Mr. Polk vetoed 
some of these very bills. The Baltimore convention passed a set of 
resolutions, among other things, approving these vetoes, and Gen- 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 139 

eral Cass declares, in his letter accepting the nomination, that he has 
carefully read these resolutions, and that he adheres to them as firmly 
as he approves them cordially. In other words. General Cass voted 
for the bills, and thinks the President did right to veto them ; and 
his friends here are amiable enough to consider him as being on one 
side or the other, just as one or the other may correspond with their 
own respective inclinations. My colleague admits that the platform 
declares against the constitutionality of a general system of im- 
provements ; and that General Cass indorses the platform ; but he 
still thinks General Cass is in favor of some sort of improvements. 
Well, what are they? As he is against general objects, those he is 
for must be particular and local. Now this is taking the subject 
precisely by the wrong end. Particularity — expending the money 
of the whole people for an object which will benefit only a portion 
of them — is the greatest real objection to improvements, and has 
been so held by General Jackson, Mr. Polk, and all others, I believe, 
till now. But now, behold, the objects most general — nearest free 
from this objection — are to be rejected, while those most liable to 
it are to be embraced. To return: I cannot help believing that 
General Cass, when he wrote his letter of acceptance, well under- 
stood he was to be claimed by the advocates of both sides of this 
question, and that he then closed the door against all further expres- 
sions of opinion purposely to retain the benefits of that double posi- 
tion. His subsequent equivocation at Cleveland, to my mind, proves 
such to have been the case. 

One word more, and I shall have done with this branch of the sub- 
ject. You Democrats, and your candidate, in the main are in favor 
of laying down in advance a platform — a set of party positions — 
as a unit, and then of forcing the people, by every sort of appli- 
ance, to ratify them, however unpalatable some of them may be. 
"We and our candidate are in favor of making presidential elec- 
tions, and the legislation of the country distinct matters ; so that 
the people can elect whom they please, and afterward legislate just 
as they please, without any hindrance, save only so much as may 
guard against infractions of the Constitution, undue haste, and 
want of consideration. The difference between us is clear as noon- 
day. That we are right we cannot doubt. We hold the true Re- 
publican position. In leaving the people's business in their hands, 
we cannot be wrong. We are willing, and even anxious, to go to 
the people on this issue. 

Old Horses and Military Goat-tails. 

But I suppose I cannot reasonably hope to convince you that we 
have any principles. The most I can expect is to assure you that 
we think we have, and are quite contented with them. The other 
day one of the gentlemen from Georgia [Mr, Iverson], an eloquent 
man, and a man of learning, so far as I can judge, not being learned 
myself, came down upon us astonishingly. He spoke in what the 
"Baltimore American" calls the "scathing and withering style." 
At the end of his second severe flash I was struck blind, and found 



140 ADDEESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

myself feelinj? with m}' fingers for au assurance of my continued ex- 
istence. A little of the bone was left, and I gi-adually re\'ived. He 
eulogized Mr. Clay in high and beautiful terms, and then declared 
that we had deserted all our principles^ and had turned Henry Clay 
out, like an old horse, to root. This is terribly severe. It cannot 
be answered by argument — at least I cannot so answer it. I merely 
"wish to ask the gentleman if the Whigs are the only party he can 
think of who sometimes turn old horses out to root. Is not a cer- 
tain Martin Van Bureu an old horse which your own party have 
turned out to root f and is he not rooting a little to your discom- 
fort about now? But in not nominating Mr. Clay we deserted 
our principles, you say. Ah ! In what ? Tell us, ye men of prin- 
ciple, what principle we violated. We say you did violate principle 
in discarding Van Buren, and we can tell you how. You vio- 
lated the primary, the cardinal, the one great living principle of all 
democratic representative government — the principle that the rep- 
resentative is bound to carry out the known will of his constituents, 
A large majority of the Baltimore convention of 1844 were, by their 
constituents, instructed to procure Van Buren's nomination if they 
could. In violation — in utter glaring contempt — of this, you re- 
jected him — rejected him, as the gentleman from New- York [Mr. 
Birdsall] the other day expressly admitted, for availability — that 
same " general availability" which j^ou charge upon us, and daily- 
chew over here, as something exceedingly odious and unprincipled. 
But the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Iverson] gave us a second 
speech yesterday, all well considered and put downi in writing, in 
which Van Buren was scathed and withered a " few " for his present 
position and movements. I cannot remember the gentleman's pre- 
cise language ; but I do remember he put Van Buren down, down, 
till he got him where he was finally to " stink " and ^' rot." 

Mr. Speaker, it is no business or inclination of mine to defend 
Martin Van Buren in the war of extermination now waging between 
him and his old admirers. I say, " Devil take the hindmost" — and 
the foremost. But there is no mistaking the origin of the breach; 
and if the curse of " stinking" and " rotting " is to fall on the first 
and greatest violators of principle in the matter, I disinterestedly 
suggest that the gentleman from Georgia and his present co-workers 
are bound to take it upon themselves. But the gentleman from 
Georgia further says we have deserted all our principles, and taken 
shelter under General Taylor's military coat-tail, and he seems to 
think this is exceedingly degrading. Well, as his faith is, so be it 
unto him. But can he remember no other military coat-tail under 
which a certain other party have been sheltering for near a quarter 
of a century ? Has he no acquaintance with the ample military coat- 
tail of General Jackson ? Does he not know that his own party have 
run the five last presidential races under that coat-tail ? And that 
they are now running the sixth under the same cover ? Yes, sir, that 
coat-tail was used not only for General Jackson himself, but has 
been clung to, with the grip of death, by every Democratic candidate 
since. You have never ventured, and dare not now venture, from 
under it. Your campaign papers have constantly been " Old Hick- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 141 

ories," with rude likenesses of the old general upon them : hickory- 
poles and hickory brooms your never-ending emblems ; Mr. Polk 
himself was *' Young Hickory," " Little Hickor}-/' or something so ; 
and even now your campaign paper here is proclaiming that Cass and 
Butler are of the true ^' Hickory stripe." Now, sir, you dare not 
give it up. Like a horde of hungry ticks you have stuck to the 
tail of the Hermitage lion to the end of his life ; and you are still 
sticking to it, and drawing a loathsome sustenance from it, after he 
is dead. A fellow once advertised that he had made a discovery by 
which he could make a new man out of an old one, and have enough 
of the stuff left to make a little yellow dog. Just such a discovery 
has General Jackson's popularity been to you. You not only twice 
made President of him out of it, but you have had enough of the 
stuff left to make Presidents of several comparatively small men 
since ; and it is your chief reliance now to make still another. 

Mr. Speaker, old horses and military coat-tails, or tails of any 
sort, are not figures of speech such as I would be the first to intro- 
duce into discussions here ; but as the gentleman from Georgia has 
thought fit to introduce them, he and you are welcome to all you 
have made, or can make by them. If you have any more old horses, 
trot them out ; any more tails, just cock them and come at us. I 
repeat, I would not introduce this mode of discussion here ; but I 
wish gentlemen on the other side to understand that the use of de- 
grading figures is a game at which they may not find themselves 
able to take all the winnings. ['' We give it up ! "] Aye, you give 
it up, and well you may ; but for a very different reason from that 
which you would have us understand. The point — the power to 
hurt — of all figures consists in the truthfulness of their application ; 
and, understanding this, you may well give it up. They are weapons 
which hit you, but miss us. 

MiUtarij Tail of the Or eat Michigander. 

But in my hurry I was very near closing this subject of mili- 
tary tails before I was done with it. There is one entire article of 
the sort I have not discussed yet, — I mean the military tail you 
Democrats are now engaged in dovetailing into the great Michi- 
gander. Yes, sir; all his biographies (and they are legion) have 
him in hand, tying him to a military tail, hke so many mischiev- 
ous boys tying a dog to a bladder of beans. True the material they 
have is very limited, but they drive at it might and main. He in- 
vaded Canada without resistance, and he outvaded it without pur- 
suit. As he did both under orders, I suppose there was to him 
neither credit nor discredit in them ; but they constitute a large part 
of the tail. He was not at Hull's surrender, but he was close by; 
he was volunteer aid to General Harrison on the day of the battle 
of the Thames; and as you said in 1840 Harrison was picking 
huckleberries two miles off while the l)attle was fought, I suppose 
it is a just conclusion with you to say Cass was aiding Harrison to 
pick huckleberries. This is^ about all, except the mooted question 
of the broken sword. Some authors say he broke it, some say he 



142 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

threw it away, and some others, who ought to know, say nothing 
about it. Perhaps it would be a fair historical compromise to say, 
if he did not break it, he did not do anything else with it. 

By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I am a military hero ? 
Yes, sir; in the days of the Black Hawk war I fought, bled, and 
came awdy. Speaking of G-eneral Cass's career reminds me of my 
own. I was not at StOlman's defeat, but I was about as near it as 
Cass was to Hull's surrender; and, like him, I saw the place very 
soon afterward. It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for 
I had none to break ; but I bent a musket pretty badly on one occa- 
sion. If Cass broke his sword, the idea is he broke it in desperation ; 
I bent the musket by accident. If General Cass went in advance of 
me in picking huckleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges 
upon the wild onions. If he saw any live, fighting Indians, it was 
more than I did ; but I had a good many bloody struggles with the 
mosquitoes, and although I never fainted from the loss of blood, I 
can truly say I was often very hungry. Mr. Speaker, if I should 
ever conclude to doff whatever our Democratic friends may suppose 
there is of black-cockade federalism about me, and therefore they 
shall take me up as their candidate for the presidency, I protest they 
shall not make fun of me, as they have of General Cass, by attempt- 
ing to write me into a military hero. 

Cass on the Wilmot Proviso. 

While I have General Cass in hand, I wish to say a word about 
his political principles. As a specimen, I take the record of his 
progress in the Wilmot proviso. In the Washington "Union" of 
March 2, 1847, there is a report of a speech of General Cass, made 
the day before in the Senate, on the Wilmot proviso, during the de- 
livery of which Mr. Miller of New Jersey is reported to have inter- 
rupted him as follows, to wit : 

Mr. Miller expressed his great surprise at the change in the sentiments of 
the senator from Michigan, who had been regarded as the great champion 
of freedom in the Northwest, of which he was a distinguished ornament. 
Last year the senator from Michigan was understood to be decidedly in 
favor of the Wilmot proviso ; and as no reason had been stated for the 
cliange, he [Mr. Miller] could not refrain from the expression of his ex- 
treme sm-prise. 

To this General Cass is reported to have replied as follows, to wit : 

Mr. Cass said that the course of the senator from New Jersey was most 
extraordinary. Last year he [Mr. Cass] should have voted for the proposi- 
tion, had it come up. But circumstances had altogether changed. The 
honorable senator then read several passages from the remarks, as given 
above, which he had committed to writing, in order to refute such a charge 
as that of the senator from New Jersey. 

In the " remarks above reduced to writing " is one numbered four, 
as f oUows, to wit : 

Fourth. Legislation now would be whoUy inoperative, because no ter- 
ritory hereafter to be acquired can be governed without an act of Congress 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 143 

providing for its government ; and such an act, on its passage, would open 
the whole subject, and leave the Congress called on to pass it free to exer- 
cise its own discretion, entirely uncontrolled by any declaration found on 
the statute-book. 

In " Niles's Register," Vol. LXXIII., p. 293, there is a letter of 

General Cass to Nicholson, of Nashville, Tennessee, dated 

December 24, 1847, from which the following are correct extracts : 

The Wilmot proviso has been before the country some time. It has 
been repeatedly discussed in Congress and by the public press. I am 
strongly impressed with the opinion that a great change has been going on 
in the pubhc mind upon this subject, — in my own as well as others', — and 
that doubts are resolving themselves into convictions that the principle it 
involves should be kept out of the national legislature, and left to the peo- 
ple of the confederacy in their respective local governments. . . . Briefly, 
then, I am opposed to the exercise of any jurisdiction by Congress over 
this matter ; and I am in favor of leaving the people of any temtory which 
may be hereafter acquired the right to regulate it themselves, under the 
general principles of the Constitution. Because — 

First. I do not see in the Constitution any grant of the requisite power 
to Congress ; and I am not disposed to extend a doubtful precedent be- 
yond its necessity, — the establishment of territorial governments when 
needed, — leaving to the inhabitants all the right compatible with the re- 
lations they bear to the confederation. 

These extracts show that in 1846 General Cass was for the pro- 
viso at once; that in March, 1847, he was still for it, but not just 
then; and that in December, 1847, he was against it altogether. 
This is a true index to the whole man. When the question was 
raised in 1846, he was in a blustering hurry to take ground for it. 
He sought to be in advance, and to avoid the uninteresting position 
of a mere follower ; but soon he began to see glimpses of the great 
Democratic ox-goad waving in his face, and to hear indistinctly a 
voice saying, " Back ! Back, sir ! Back a little ! " He shakes his 
head, and bats his eyes, and blunders back to his position of March, 
1847 ; but still the goad waves, and the voice grows more distinct 
and sharper still, " Back, sir ! Back, I say ! Further back ! " — 
and back he goes to the position of December, 1847, at which the 
goad is still, and the voice soothingly says, '' So ! Stand at that ! " 

Have no fears, gentlemen, of your candidate. He exactly suits 
you, and we congratulate you upon it. However much you may be 
distressed about our candidate, you have all cause to be contented 
and happy with your own. If elected, he may not maintain all, or 
even any of his positions previously taken; but he will be sure 
to do whatever the party exigency for the time being may require ; 
and that is precisely what you want. He and Van Buren are the 
same " manner of men " ; and, like Van Buren, he will never desert 
you till you first desert him. 

Cass on Working and Eating. 

Mr. Speaker, I adopt the suggestion of a friend, that General 
Cass is a general of splendidly successful charges — charges to be 



144 ADDRESSES AKD LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

sure, not upon the public enemy, but upon the public treasury. He 
was Governor of Michigan Territory, and ex-offlcio Superintendent 
of Indian Affairs, from the 9th of October, 1813, till the 31st of 
July, 1831 — a period of seventeen years, nine months, and twenty- 
two days. During this period he received from the United States 
treasury, for personal services and personal expenses, the aggregate 
sum of ninety-six thousand and twenty-eight dollars, being an aver- 
age of fourteen dollars and seventy-nine cents per day for every day 
of the time. This large sum was reached by assuming that he was 
doing service at several different places, and in several different 
capacities in the same place, all at the same time. By a correct 
analysis of his accounts during that period, the following proposi- 
tions may be deduced : 

Fii'st. He was paid in three different capacities during the whole 
of the time ; that is to say — (1) As governor's salary at the rate per 
year of $2000. (2) As estimated for office rent^ clerk hire, fuel, etc., 
in superintendence of Indian affairs in Michigan, at the rate per 
year of $1500. (3) As compensation and expenses for various mis- 
cellaneous items of Indian service out of Michigan, an average per 
year of $625. 

Second. During part of the time — that is, from the 9th of Octo- 
ber, 1813, to the 29th of May, 1822 — he was paid in four different 
capacities ; that is to say, the three as above, and, in addition thereto, 
the commutation of ten rations per day, amounting per year to $730. 

Third. During another part of the time — that is, from the be- 
ginning of 1822 to the 31st of July, 1831 — he was also paid in four 
different capacities ; that is to say, the first three, as above (the ra- 
tions being dropped after the 29th of May, 1822), and, in addition 
thereto, for superintending Indian Agencies at Piqua, Ohio ; Fort 
Wayne, Indiana ; and Chicago, Illinois, at the rate per year of $1500. 
It should be observed here that the last item, commencing at the 
beginning of 1822, and the item of rations, ending on the 29th of 
May, 1822, lap on each other during so much of the time as lies 
between those two dates. 

Fourth. Still another part of the time — that is, from the 31st of 
October, 1821, to the 29th of May, 1822— he was paid in six different 
capacities ; that is to say, the three first, as above ; the item of ra- 
tions, as above ; and, in addition thereto, another item of ten rations 
per day while at Washington settling his accounts, being at the rate 
per year of $730 ; and also an allowance for expenses traveling to 
and from Washington, and while there, of $1022, being at the rate 
per year of $1793. 

Fifth. And yet during the little portion of the time which lies 
between the 1st of January, 1822, and the 29th of May, 1822, he was 
paid in seven different capacities ; that is to say, the six last men- 
tioned, and also, at the rate of $1500 per year, for the Piqua, Fort 
Wayne, and Chicago service, as mentioned above. 

These accounts have already been discussed some here ; but when 
we are amongst them, as when we are in the Patent Office, we must 
peep about a good deal before we can see all the curiosities. I shall 
not be tedious with them. As to the large item of $1500 per year — 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 145 

amounting iu the aggregate to $26,715 — for office rent, clerk hire, 
fuel, etc., I barely wish to remark that so far as I can discover in 
the public documents, there is no evidence, by word or inference, 
either from any disinterested witness or of General Cass himself, 
that he ever rented or kept a separate office, ever hired or kept a 
clerk, or even used any extra amount of fuel, etc., in consequence of 
his Indian services. Indeed, General Cass's entire silence in regard 
to these items, in his two long letters urging his claims upon the 
government, is, to my mind, almost conclusive that no such claims 
had any real existence. 

But I have introduced General Cass's accounts here chiefly to show 
the wonderful physical capacities of the man. They show that he 
not only did the labor of several men at the same time, but that he 
often did it at several places, many hundreds of miles apart, at the 
same time. And at eating, too, his capacities are shown to be quite 
as wonderful. From October, 1821, to May, 1822, he eat ten rations 
a day in Michigan, ten rations a day here in Washington, and near 
five dollars' worth a day on the road between the two places ! And 
then there is an important discovery in his example — the art of being 
paid for what one eats, instead of having to pay for it. Hereafter 
if any nice young man should owe a bill which he cannot pay in any 
other way, he can just board it out. Mr. Speaker, we have all heard 
of the animal standing in doubt between two stacks of hay and starv- 
ing to death. The like of that would never happen to General Cass. 
Place the stacks a thousand miles apart, he would stand stock-still 
midway between them, and eat them both at once, and the gi-een 
grass along the line would be apt to suffer some, too, at the same 
time. By all means make him Fresident, gentlemen. He will feed 
you bounteously — if — if there is any left after he shall have helped 
himself. 

The Whigs and the War. 

But, as General Taylor is, par excellence, the hero of the Mexican 
War, and as you Democrats say we Whigs have always opposed the 
war, you think it must be very awkward and embarrassing for us 
to go for General Taylor. The declaration that we have always 
opposed the wai* is true or false, according as one may understand 
the term '^ oppose the war." If to say " the war was unnecessarily 
and unconstitutionally commenced by the President" be opposing 
the war, then the Whigs have very generally opposed it. Whenever 
they have spoken at all, they have said this ; and they have said it 
on what has appeared good reason to them. The marching an army 
into the midst of a peaceful Mexican settlement, frightening the in- 
habitants away, leaving theii' growing crops and other property to 
destruction, to you may appear a perfectly amiable, peaceful, unpro- 
voking procedure ; but it does not appear so to us. So to call such 
an act, to us appears no other than a naked, impudent absurdity, 
and we speak of it accordingly. But if, when the war had begun, 
and had become the cause of the country, the giving of our money and 
our blood, in common with yours, was support of the war, then 
it is not true that we have always opposed the war. With few 
Vol. I.— 10. 



146 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

individual exceptions, you have constantly had our votes here for 
all the necessary supplies. And, more than this, you have had 
the services, the blood, and the lives of our political brethren in 
every trial and on every field. The beardless boy and the ma- 
ture man, the humble and the distinguished — you have had them. 
Through suffering and death, by disease and in battle, they have en- 
dured and fought and fell with you. Clay and Webster each gave 
a son, never to be returned. From the State of my own residence, 
besides other worthy but less known Whig names, we sent Marshall, 
Morrison, Baker, and Hardin ; they all fought, and one fell, and in 
the fall of that one we lost our best Whig man. Nor were the 
Whigs few in number, or laggard in the day of danger. In that 
fearful, bloody, breathless struggle at Buena Vista, where each man's 
hard task was to beat back five foes or die himself, of the five high 
officers who perished, four were Whigs. 

In speaking of this, I mean no odious comparison between the 
lion-hearted Whigs and the Democrats who fought there. On other 
occasions, and among the lower officers and privates on that occa- 
sion, I doubt not the proportion was different. I wish to do jus- 
tice to all. I think of all those brave men as Americans, in whose 
proud fame, as an American, I too have a share. Many of them, 
Whigs and Democrats, are my constituents and personal friends; 
and I thank them, — more than thank them, — one and all, for 
the high imperishable honor they have conferred on our common 
State. 

But the distinction between the cause of the President in begin- 
ning the war, and the cause of the country after it was begun, is a dis- 
tinction which you cannot perceive. To you the President and the 
country seem to be all one. You are interested to see no distinction 
between them ; and I venture to suggest that probably your interest 
blinds you a little. We see the distinction, as we think, clearly 
enough ; and our friends who have fought in the war have no dif- 
ficulty in seeing it also. What those who have fallen would say, 
were they alive and here, of course we can never know ; but with 
those who have returned there is no difficulty. Colonel HaskeU and 
Major Gaines, members here, both fought in the war, and one of 
them underwent extraordinary perils and hardships ; stiU they, like 
all other Whigs here, vote, on the record, that the war was unneces- 
sarily and unconstitutionally commenced by the President. And 
even General Taylor himself, the noblest Roman of them all, has 
declared that as a citizen, and particularly as a soldier, it is suffi- 
cient for him to know that his country is at war with a foreign 
nation, to do all in his power to bring it to a speedy and honorable 
termination by the most vigorous and energetic operations, without 
inquiry about its justice, or anything else connected with it. 

Mr. Speaker, let our Democratic friends be comforted with the as- 
surance that we are content with our position, content with our com- 
pany, and content with our candidate ; and that although they, in 
their generous sympathy, think we ought to be miserable, we really 
are not, and that they may dismiss the great anxiety they have on 
our account. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 147 

Mr. Speaker, I see I have but three minutes left, aud this forces 
me to throw out one whole branch of my subject. A single word 
on still another. The Democrats are keen enough to frequently re- 
mind us that we have some dissensions in our ranks. Our good 
friend from Baltimore immediately before me [Mr. McLaneJ ex- 
pressed some doubt the other day as to which branch of our party 
General Taylor would ultimately fall into the hands of. That was a 
new idea to me. I knew we had dissenters, but I did not know they 
were trying to get our candidate away from us, I would like to say 
a word to our dissenters, but I have not the time. Some such we 
certainly have; have you none, gentlemen Democrats? Is it all 
union and harmony in your ranks? no bickerings ! no divisions? 
If there be doubt as to which of our divisions will get our candi- 
date, is'there no doubt as to which of your candidates will get your 
party 1 

Divided Gangs of Hogs ! 

I have heard some things from New York ; aud if they are true, 
one might well say of your party there, as a drunken fellow once 
said when he heard the reading of an indictment for hog-stealing. 
The clerk read on till he got to and through the words, " did steal, 
take, and carry away ten boars, ten sows, ten shoats, and ten pigs," 
at which he exclaimed, '' Well, by golly, that is the most equally 
divided gang of hogs I ever did hear of!" If there is any other 
gang of hogs more equally divided than the Democrats of New 
York are about this time, I have not heard of it. 



December 24, 1848. — Letter to Thomas Lincoln. 

Washington, December 24, 1848. 

My dear Father : Your letter of the 7th was received night be- 
fore last. I very cheerfully send you the twenty dollars, which 
sum you say is necessary to save your land from sale. It is singu- 
lar that you should have forgotten a Judgment against you ; and it 
is more singular that the plaintiff should have let you forget it so 
long, particularly as I suppose you always had property enough to 
satisfy a judgment of that amount. Before you pay it, it would be 
well to be sure you have not paid, or at least that you cannot prove 
that you have paid it. 

Give my love to mother and all the connections. Affectionately 
youi* son, A. Lincoln. 

January 16, 1849. — Bill to Abolish Slavery in the District 

OF COLUIVIBIA. 

On January 16, 1849, Mr. Lincoln moved the following amendment 
in the House of Representatives in Congress, instructing the proper 
committee to report a bill for the abolition of slavery in the District 
of Columbia, with the consent of the voters of the District, and ynih. 
compensation to owners: 



148 ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Resolved, Tluit tlie Committee on the District of Columbia be instructed 
to report a bill in substance as follows : 

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States, in Congress assembled, That no person not now within the 
District of Columbia, nor now owned by any person or persons now resi- 
dent within it, nor hereafter born within it, shaU ever be held in slavery 
within said District. 

Sec. 2. That no person now within said District, or now owned by any 
person or persons now resident within the same, or hereafter born within 
it, shall ever be held in slavery without the limits of said District : Provided, 
That officers of the Government of the United States, being citizens of the 
slaveholding States, coming into said District on public business, and re- 
maining only so long as may be reasonably necessary for that object, may 
be attended into and out of said District, and while there, by the necessary- 
servants of themselves and their families, without their right to hold such 
servants in service being thereby impaired. 

Sec. 3. That all children born of slave mothers within said District, on 
or after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred 
and fifty, shall be free ; but shall be reasonably supported and educated by 
the respective owners of their mothers, or by their heirs or representatives, 
and shall owe reasonable service as apprentices to such owners, heirs, or 

representatives, until they respectively arrive at the age of Y^^^'^: when 

they shall be entirely free ; and the municipal authorities of Washmgton 
and Georgetown, within their respective jurisdictional limits, are hereby 
empowered and required to make all suitable and necessary pro^dsion for 
enforcing obedience to this section, on the part of both masters and ap- 
prentices. 

Sec. 4. That all persons now within this District, lawfully held as slaves, 
or now owned by any person or persons now resident within said District, 
shall remain such at the will of their respective owners, their heirs, and legal 
representatives: Provided, That such owTier, or his legal representative, 
may at any time receive from the Treasury of the United States the full 
value of his or her slave, of the class in this section mentioned, upon which 
such slave shall be forthwith and forever free : And provided further, That 
the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury shall be a board for determining the value of such 
slaves as their owners may desire to emancipate under this section, and whose 
duty it shall be to hold a session for the piu*pose on the first Monday of each 
calendar month, to receive all applications, and, on satisfactoi'y evidence in 
each case that the person presented for valuation is a slave, and of the class 
in this section mentioned, and is owned by the apphcant, shall value such 
slave at his or her full cash value, and give to the apphcant an order on the 
Treasury for the amount, and also to such slave a certificate of freedom. 

Sec. 5. That the municipal authorities of Washington and Georgetown, 
within their respective jurisdictional hmits, are hereby empowered and re- 
quired to provide active and efficient means to arrest and deliver up to their 
o\vners all fugitive slaves escaping into said District. 

Sec. 6. That the election officers within said District of Columbia are 
hereby empowered and required to open polls, at all the usual places of 
holding elections, on the first Monday of April next, and receive the vote 
of every free white male citizen above the age of twenty-one years, having 
resided within said District for the period of one year or more next preced- 
ing the time of such voting for or against this act, to proceed in taking said 
votes, in all respects not herein specified, as at elections under the muni- 
cipal laws, and witli as little delay as possible to transmit correct statements 
of the votes so cast to the President of the United States ; and it shaU be the 
duty of the President to canvass said votes immediately, and if a majority of 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 149 

them be found to be for this act, to forthwith issue his proclamation giving 
notice of tlie fact ; and this act shall only be in full force and effect on and 
after the day of such proclamation. 

Sec. 7. That involuntary servitude for the punishment of crime, whereof 
the party shall have been duly convicted, shall in no wise be prohibited by 
this act. 

See. 8. That for all the purposes of this act, the jvirisdictional limits of 
Washington are extended to ail parts of the District of Columbia not now 
includetC within the present limits of Georgetown. 



February 2, 1849. — Letter to Schooler. 

Washington, February 2, 1849. 

Friend Schooler: In these days of Cabinet making, we out West 
are awake as well as others. The accompanying article is from 
the " Illinois Journal," oui* leading Whig paper : and while it ex- 
presses what all the Whigs of the legislatures of Illinois, Iowa, and 
Wisconsin have expressed, — a preference for Colonel Baker, — I 
think it is fair and magnanimous to the other Western aspirants ; 
and, on the whole, shows by sound argument that the West is not 
only entitled to, but is in need of, one member of the Cabinet. De- 
siring to turn public attention in some measure to this point, I shall 
be obliged if you will give the article a place in your paper, with or 
without comments, according to your own sense of propriety. 

Our acquaintance, though short, has been very cordial, and I 
therefore venture to hope you will not consider my request pre- 
sumptuous, whether you shall or shall not think proper to grant it. 
This I intend as private and confidential. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 



February 13, 1849. — Remarks est the United States 
House of Representatives, 

On the Bill Oranting Lands to the States to Make Railroads and Canals. 

Mr. Lincoln said he had not risen for the purpose of making a 
speech, but only for the purpose of meeting some of the objections 
to the bill. If he understood those objections, the first was that 
if the bill were to become a law, it would be used to lock large por- 
tions of the public lands from sale, without at last effecting the 
ostensible object of the bill — the construction of railroads in the new 
States ; and secondly, that Congress would be forced to the aban- 
donment of large portions of the public lands to the States for which 
they might be reserved, without their paying for them. This he 
understood to be the substance of the objections of the gentleman 
from Ohio to the passage of the bill. 

If he could get the attention of the House for a few minutes, he 
would ask gentlemen to tell us what motive could induce any State 
legislature, or individual, or company of individuals, of the new 
States, to expend money in surveying roads which they might know 



150 ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

they could not make! [A voice: They are not required to make 
the road.] 

Mr. Lincoln continued : That was not the case he was making. 
What motive would tempt any set of men to go into an extensive 
survey of a railroad which they did not intend to make? What 
good would it do ? Did men act without motive ? Did business 
men commonly go into an expenditure of money which could be of 
no account to them ? He generally found that men who have money 
were disposed to hold on to it, unless they could see something to 
be made by its investment. He could not see what motive of ad- 
vantage to the new States could be subserved by merely keeping 
the public lands out of market, and preventing their settlement. 
As far as he could see, the new States were wholly without any 
motive to do such a thing. This, then, he took to be a good answer 
to the first objection. 

In relation to the fact assumed, that after a while, the new States 
having got hold of the public lands to a certain extent, they would 
turn round and compel Congress to relinquish all claim to them, he 
had a word to say, by way of recurring to the history of the past. 
When was the time to come (he asked) when the States in which 
the public lands were situated would compose a majority of the 
representation in Congress, or anything like it? A majority of 
Representatives would very soon reside west of the mountains, he 
admitted ; but would they all come from States in which the public 
lands were situated ? They certainly would not ; for, as these West- 
ern States grew strong in Congress, the public lands passed away 
from them, and they got on tlie other side of the question ; and 
the gentleman from Ohio [Mr, Vinton] was an example attesting 
that fact. 

Mr. Vinton interrupted here to say that he had stood on this 
question just where he was now, for five and twenty years. 

Mr. Lincoln was not making an argument for the purpose of con- 
victing the gentleman of any impropriety at all. He was speaking 
of a fact in history, of which his State was an example. He was 
referring to a plain principle in the nature of things. The State of 
Ohio had now grown to be a giant. She had a large delegation on 
that floor; but was she now in favor of granting lands to the new 
States, as she used to be ? The New England States, New York, and 
the Old Thirteen were all rather quiet upon the subject ; and it was 
seen just now that a member from one of the new States was the 
first man to rise up in opposition. And so it would be with the his- 
tory of this question for the future. There never would come a 
time when the people residing in the States embracing the public 
lands would have the entire control of this subject ; and so it was a 
matter of certainty that Congress would never do more in this 
respect than what would be dictated by a just liberality. The ap- 
prenension, therefore, that the public lands were in danger of being 
wrested from the General Government by the strength of the dele- 
gation in Congress from the new States, was utterly futile. There 
never could be such a thing. If we take these lands (said he) it will 
not be without your consent. We can never outnumber you. The 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 151 

result is that all fear of the new States turning against the right of 
Congress to the public domain must be effectually quelled, as those 
who are opposed to that interest must always hold a vast majority 
here, and they wUl never surrender the whole or any part of the 

gublic lands unless they themselves choose to do so. That was all 
e desired to say. 

February 20, 1849. — Letter to Joshua F. Speed. 

February 20, 1849. 
My dear Speed ; . . . I am flattered to learn that Mr. Crittenden 
has any recollection of me which is not unfavorable ; and for the 
manifestation of your kindness toward me I sincerely thank you. 
Still there is nothing about me to authorize me to think of a first- 
class office, and a second-class one would not compensate my being 
sneered at by others who want it for themselves. I believe that, so 
far as the Whigs in Congress are concerned, I could have the Gen- 
eral Land Office almost by common consent ; but then Sweet and 
Don Morrison and Browning and Cyrus Edwards all want it, and 
what is worse, while I think I could easily take it myself, I fear I 
shall have trouble to get it for any other man in Illinois. The rea- 
son is that McGaughey, an Indiana ex-member of Congress, is here 
after it, and being personally known, he will be hard to beat by any 
one who is not. ....,, i i 

March 9, 1849. — Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury. 

Washington, March 9, 1849. 
Hon. Secretary op the Treasury. 

Bear Sir : Colonel E. D. Baker and myself are the only Whig 
members of Congress from Illinois — I of the Thii'tieth, and he of 
the Thirty-first. We have reason to think the Whigs of that State 
hold us responsible, to some extent, for the appointments which 
may be made of our citizens. We do not know you personally ; and 
our efforts to see you have, so far, been unavailing. I therefore 
hope I am not obtrusive in saying in this way, for him and myself, 
that when a citizen of Illinois is to be appointed in your depart- 
ment, to an office either in or out of the State, we most respectfully 
ask to be heard. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 

March 10, 1849. — Letter to the Secretary of State. 

Washington, March 10, 1849. 
Hon. Secretary of State. 

Sir: There are several applicants for the office of United States 
Marshal for the District of Illinois, among the most prominent of 

whom are Benjamin Bond, Esq., of Carlyle, and Thomas, Esq., 

of Galena. Mr. Bond I know to be personally every way worthy of 
the office ; and he is very numerously and most respectably recom- 



152 ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN 

mended. His papers I send to you ; and I solicit for his claims a 
full and fair consideration. 

Having said this much, I add that in my individual judgment the 
appointment of Mr. Thomas would be the better. 

Your obedient servant, A, Lincoln. 

(Indorsed on ]VIr. Bond's papers.) 

In this and the accompanying envelop are the recommendations 
of about two hundi'ed good citizens of all parts of Illinois, that Ben- 
jamin Bond be appointed marshal for that district. They include 
the names of nearly all our Whigs who now are, or have ever been, 
members of the State legislature, besides forty-six of the Demo- 
cratic members of the present legislature, and many other good 
citizens. I add that from personal knowledge I consider Mr. Bond 
every way worthy of the office, and qualified to fill it. Holding the 
individual opinion that the appointment of a different gentleman 
would be better, I ask especial attention and consideration for his 
claims, and for the opinions expressed in his favor by those over 
whom I can claim no superiority. 

A. Lincoln. 

April 7, 1849.— Letter to the Secretary of the Interior. 

Springfield, Illinois, April 7, 1849. 
Hon. Secretary of the Home Department. 

Bear Sir: I recommend that Walter Davis be appointed Receiver 
of the Land Office at this place, whenever there shall be a vacancy. 
I cannot say that Mr. Herndou, the present incumbent, has failed in 
the proper discharge of any of the duties of the office. He is a very 
warm partizau, and openly and actively opposed to the election of 
General Taylor. I also understand that since General Taylor's elec- 
tion, he has received a reappointment from Mr. Polk, his old com- 
mission not having expired. Whether this is true the records of the 
department will show. I may add that the Whigs here almost uni- 
versally desire his removal. 

I give no opinion of my own, but state the facts, and express the 
hope that the department will act in this as in all other cases on 
some proper general rule. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 

P. S. The land district to which this office belongs is very nearly 
if not entirely within my district ; so that Colonel Baker, the other 
Whig representative, claims no voice in the appointment. 

A. L. 

April 7, 1849. — Letter to the Secretary of the Interior. 

Springfield, Illinois, April 7, 1849. 
Hon. Secretary of the Home Department. 

Bear Sir: I recommend that Turner R. King, now of Pekin, Illi- 
nois, be appointed Register of the Land Office at this place when- 
ever there shall be a vacancy. 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 153 

I do not know that Mr. Barret, the present incumbent, has failed 
in the proper discharge of any of his duties in the office. He is a 
decided partizan, and openly and actively opposed the election of 
General Taylor. I understand, too, that since the election of Gen- 
eral Taylor, Mr. Barret has received a reappointment from Mr. Polk, 
his old commission not having expired. Whether this be true, the 
records of the Department will show. 

Whether he should be removed I give no opinion, but merely ex- 
press the wish that the Department may act upon some proper gen- 
eral rule, and that Mr. Barret's case may not be made an exception 
to it. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 

P. S. The land district to which this office belongs is very nearly 
if not entirely within my district; so that Colonel Baker, the other 
Whig representative, claims no voice in the appointment. 

A. L. 

April 7, 1849. — Letter to the Postmaster-General. 

Springfield, Illinois, April 7, 1849. 
Hon. Postmaster-General. 

Dear Sir : I recommend that Abner Y. Ellis be appointed post- 
master at this place, whenever there shall be a vacancy. J. R. Diller, 
the present incumbent, I cannot say has failed in the proper dis- 
charge of any of the duties of the office. He, however, has been an 
active partizan in opposition to us. 

Located at the seat of government of the State, he has been, for 
part if not the whole of the time he has held the office, a member of 
the Democratic State Central Committee, signing his name to their 
addresses and manifestos ; and has been, as I understand, reappointed 
by Mr. Polk since General Taylor's election. These are the facts of 
the case as I understand them, and I give no opinion of mine as to 
whether he should or should not be removed. My wish is that the 
Department may adopt some proper general rule for such cases, and 
that Mr. Diller may not be made an exception to it, one way or the 
other. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 

P. S. This office, with its delivery, is entirely within my district ; 
so that Colonel Baker, the other Whig representative, claims no 
voice in the appointment. 

L. 

April 7, 1849. — Letter to W. B. Warren and others. 

Springfield, Illinois, April 7, 1849. 
Gentlemen: In answer to your note concerning the General Land 
Office I have to say that, if the office could be secured to Illinois by 
my consent to accept it, and not otherwise, I give that consent. 
Some months since I gave my word to secure the appointment to 
that office of Mr. Cyrus Edwards, if in my power, in case of a vacancy ; 



154 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and more recently I stipulated with Colonel Baker that if Mr. Ed- 
wards and Colonel J. L. D. Morrison could arrange with each other 
for one of them to withdraw, we would jointly recommend the other. 
In relation to these pledges, I must not only be chaste, but above 
suspicion. If the office shall be tendered to me, I must be permitted 
to say : " Give it to Mr. Edwards or, if so agreed by them, to Colonel 
Morrison, and I dechne it; if not, I accept." With this under 
standing you are at liberty to procure me the offer of the appoint- 
ment if you can ; and I shall feel complimented by your effort, and 
still more b^ its success. It should not be overlooked that Colonel 
Baker's position entitles him to a large share of control in this mat- 
ter: however, one of your number, Colonel Warren, knows that 
Baker has at all times been ready to recommend me, if I would eon- 
sent. It must also be understood that if at any time previous to an 
appointment being made I shall learn that Mr. Edwards and Colo- 
nel Morrison have agreed, I shall at once carry out my stipulation 
with Colonel Baker as above stated. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

April 7, 1849.— Letter to the Secretary of the Interior. 

Springfield, Illinois, April 7, 1849. 
Hon. Secretary of the Home Department, 

Dear Si?' : I recommend that William Butler be appointed Pen- 
sion Agent for the Illinois agency, when the place shall be vacant. 
Mr. Hurst, the present incumbent, I believe has performed the du- 
ties very well. He is a decided partizan, and, I believe, expects to 
be removed. Whether he shall, I submit to the Department. This 
office is not confined to my district, but pertains to the whole State ; 
so that Colonel Baker has an equal right with myself to be heard 
concerning it. 

However, the office is located here ; and I think it is not probable 
that any one would desire to remove fi-om a distance to take it. 
Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. 



April 25, 1849.— Letter to Thompson. 

Springfield, April 25, 1849. 
Bear Thonipson : A tirade is still kept up against me here for rec- 
ommending T. R. King. This morning it is openly avowed that my 
supposed influence at Washington shall be broken down generally, 
and King's prospects defeated in particular. Now, what I have 
done in this matter I have done at the request of you and some 
other friends in Tazewell; and I therefore ask you to either admit 
it is wrong, or come forward and sustain me. If the truth will per- 
mit, I propose that you sustain me in the following manner: copy 
the inclosed scrap in your own handwriting, and get everybody (not 
three or four, but three or four hundred) to sign it, and then send 
it to me. Also have six, eight, or ten of our best-known Whig 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 155 

friends there to write to me individual letters, stating the truth in 
this matter as they understand it. Don't neglect or delay in the 
matter. I understand information of an indictment having been 
found against him about three years ago, for gaming or keeping a 
gaming-house, has been sent to the Department. I shall try to take 
care of it at the Department till your action can be had and for- 
warded on. Yours, as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 

April 25, 1849. — Letter to J. M. Lucas. 

Springfield, Illinois, April 25, 1849. 
J. M. Lucas, Esq. 

Dear Sir: Your letter of the 15th is just received. Like you, I 
fear the Land Office is not going as it should ; but I know nothing 
I can do. In my letter written three days ago, I told you the De- 
partment understands my wishes. As to Butterfield, he is my per- 
sonal friend, and is qualified to do the duties of the office: but of 
the quite one hundred Illinoisans equally well qualified, 1 do not 
know one with less claims to it. In the first place, what you say 
about Lisle Smith is the first intimation I have had of any one man 
in Illinois desiring Butterfield to have any office. Now, I think if 
anything be given the State, it should be so given as to gratify our 
friends, and to stimulate them to future exertions. As to Mr. Clay 
having recommended him, that is quid pro quo. He fought for Mr. 
Clay against General Taylor to the bitter end, as I understand ; and 
I do not believe I misunderstand. Lisle Smith, too, was a Clay del- 
egate at Philadelphia, and against my most earnest entreaties took 
the lead in filling two vacancies from my own district with Clay 
men. It will now mortify me deeply if General Taylor's adminis- 
tration shaU trample all my wishes in the dust merely to gratify 
these men. Yours, as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 

May [1 ?J, 1849. — Indorsement concerning Orville Paddock. 

I have already recommended W. S. "Wallace for Pension Agent at 
this place. It is, however, due the truth to say that Orville Pad- 
dock, above recommended, is every way qualified for the office, and 
that the persons recommending him are of our business men and 
best Whig citizens. 



May 10, 1849. — Letter to the Secretary of the Interior. 

Springfield, Illinois, May 10, 1849. 
Hon. Secretary of the Interior. 

Dear Sir : I regret troubling you so often in relation to the land 
offices here, but I hope you will perceive the necessity of it, and ex- 
cuse me. On the 7th of April I wrote you recommending Tm-ner 
R. King for Register, and Walter Davis for Receiver. Subsequently 



156 ADDKESWES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I wrote you that, for a private reason, I had concluded to transpose 
them. That private reason was the request of an old personal fnend 
who himself desired to be Receiver, but whom I felt it my duty to 
refuse a recommendation. He said if I would transpose King and 
Davis he would be satisfied. I thought it a whim, but, anxious to 
oblige him, I consented. Immediately he commenced an assault 
upon King's character, intending, as I suppose, to defeat his ap- 
pointment, and thereby secure another chance for himself. This 
double offense of bad faith to me and slander upon a good man is 
so totally outrageous that I now ask to have King and Davis placed 
as I originally recommended, — that is. King for Kegister and Davis 
for Receiver. 

An effort is being made now to have Mr. Barret, the present Reg- 
ister, retained. I have already said he has done the duties of the office 
well, and I now add he is a gentleman in the true sense. Still, he 
submits to be the instrument of his party to injure us. His high 
character enables him to do it more effectually. Last year he pre- 
sided at the convention which nominated the Democratic candidate 
for Congress in this district, and afterward ran for the State Senate 
himself, not desiring the seat, but avowedly to aid and strengthen 
his party. He made speech after speech with a degree of fierceness 
and coarseness against General Taylor not quite consistent with his 
habitually gentlemanly deportment. At least one (and I think more) 
of those who are now trying to have him retained was himself an 
applicant for this very office, and, failing to get my recommendation, 
now takes this turn. 

In writing you a third time in relation to these offices, I stated 
that I supposed charges had been forwarded to you against King, 
and that I would inquire into the truth of them. I now send you 
herewith what I suppose will be an ample defense against any such 
charges. I ask attention to all the papers, but particularly to the 
letters of Mr. David Mack, and the paper with the long list of names. 
There is no mistake about King's being a good man. After the un- 
just assault upon him, and considering the just claims of Tazewell 
County, as indicated in the letters I inclose you, it would in my 
opinion be injustice, and withal a blunder, not to appoint him, at 
least as soon as any one is appointed to either of the offices here. 
Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. 



May 18, 1849. — Letter to Duff Green. 

Springfield, Illinois, May 18, 1849. 
Dear General: I learn from Washington that a man by the name 
of Butterfield will probably be appointed Commissioner of the Gen- 
eral Land Office. This ought not to be. That is about the only 
crumb of patronage which Illinois expects; and I am sure the mass 
of General Tayloi^s friends here would quite as lief see it go east of 
the Alleghauies, or west of the Rocky Mountains, as into that man's 
hands. They are already sore on the subject of his getting office. 
In the great contest of 1840 he was not seen or heard of ; but when 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 157 

the victory came, thi-ee or four old drones, including him, got all the 
valuable offices, through what influence no one has yet been able to 
tell. I believe the only time he has been very active was last spring 
a year ago, in opposition to General Tayloi-'s nomination. 

Now, cannot you get the ear of General Taylor? Ewing is for 
Butterfield, and therefore he must be avoided. Preston, I think, will 
favor you. Mr. Edwards has written me offering to decline, but I 
advised him not to do so. Some kind friends think I ought to be an 
applicant, but I am for Mr. Edwards. Try to defeat Butterfield, and 
in doing so use Mr. Edwards, J. L. D. Morrison, or myself, whichever 
you can to best advantage. Write me, and let this be confidential. 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 



May 25, 1849. — Letter to E. Embree. 

Confidential. 

Springfield, Illinois, May 25, 1849. 
Hon. E. Embree. 

Bear Sir : I am about to ask a favor of you, — one which I hope 
will not cost you much. I understand the General Land Office is 
about to be given to Illinois, and that Mr. Ewing desires Justin 
Butterfield, of Chicago, to be the man. I give you my word, the 
appointment of Mr. Butterfield will be an egregious political blunder. 
It will give offense to the whole Whig party here, and be worse 
than a dead loss to the administration of so much of its patronage. 
Now, if you can conscientiously do so, I wish you to write General 
Taylor at once, saying that either I, or the man I recommend, should 
in your opinion be appointed to that office, if any one from Illinois 
shaU be. I restrict my request to Illinois because you may have a 
man from your own State, and I do not ask to interfere with that. 
Your friend as ever, A. Lincoln. 



June 5, 1849. — Letter to William H. Herndon. 

SPRiNGFiEiiD, June 5, 1849. 
Dear William : Your two letters were received last night. I have 
a great many letters to write, and so cannot write very long ones. 
There must be some mistake about Walter Davis saying I promised 
him the post-office. I did not so promise him. I did tell him that 
if the distribution of the offices should fall into my hands, he should 
have something; and if I shall be convinced he has said any more 
than this, I shall be disappointed. I said this much to him because, 
as I understand, he is of good character, is one of the young men, is 
of the mechanics, and always faithful and never troul^lesome; a 
Whig, and is poor, with the support of a widow mother thrown al- 
most exclusively on him by the death of his brother. If these 



158 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

are wrong reasons, then I have been wrong; but I have certainly 
not been selfish in it, because in my greatest need of friends he was 
against me, and for Baker. Yours as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 
P. S. Let the above be confidential. 



June 5, 1849. — Letter Asking a Recommendation. 

Note. — In the files are a considerable number of replies transmitting in- 
dorsements, and reporting information on the progress of the contest be- 
tween Mr. Lincoln and ]\lr. Justin Butterfield for this appointment. 

Springfield, Illinois, June 5, 1849. 
Dear Sir : Would you as soon I should have the General Land 
Office as any other Illinoisan ? If you would, write me to that effect 
at Washington, where I shall be soon. No time to lose. 

Yours in haste, A. Lincoln. 

June 8, 1849. — Letter to Nathaniel Pope. 

Springfield, June 8, 1849. 
Hon. N. Pope. 

Dear Sir : I do not know that it would, but I can well enough 
conceive it might, embarrass you to now give a letter recommending 
me for the General Land Office. Could you not, however, without 
embarrassment or any impropriety, so far vindicate the truth of 
history as to briefly state to me, in a letter, what you did say to me 
last spring, on my arrival here from Washington, in relation to my 
becoming an applicant for that office ? Having at last concluded to 
be an applicant, I have thought it is perhaps due me to be enabled 
to show the influences which brought me to the conclusion, and of 
which influences the wishes and opinions you expressed were not 
the least. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 

September [12 ?], 1849. — Resolutions of Sympathy with the 
Cause of Hungarian Freedom. 

At a meeting to express sympathy with the cause of Hungarian 
Freedom, Dr. Todd, Thos. Le\*as, Hon. A. Lincoln, and Wm. Car- 
penter were appointed a committee to present appropriate resolu- 
tions, which reported through Hon. A. Lincoln the following : 

Resolved, That in their present glorious struggle for liberty, the 
Hungarians command our highest admiration and have our warmest 
sympathy. 

Resolved, That they have our most ardent prayers for their speedy 
triumph and final success. 

Resolved, That the Government of the Lhiited States should ac- 
knowledge the independence of Hungary as a nation of freemen at 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 159 

the very earliest moment cousistent with our amicable relations with 
the government against which they are contending. 

Resolved, That in the opinion of this meeting, the immediate ac- 
knowledgment of the independence of Hungary by our government 
is due from American freemen to their struggling brethren, to the 
general cause of repubhcan liberty, and not violative of the just 
rights of any nation or people. 



September 27, 1849. — Letter to John Addison. 

Springfield, Illinois, September 27, 1849. 
John Addison, Esq. 

My dear Sir : Your letter is received. I cannot but be grateful to 
you and all other friends who have interested themselves in having 
the governorship of Oregon offered to me ; but on as much reflec- 
tion as I have had time to give the subject, I cannot consent to ac- 
cept it. I have an ever abiding wish to serve you ; but as to the 
secretaryship, I have already recommended our friend Simeon 
Francis,' of the " Journal." Please present my respects to G. T. M. 
Davis generally, and my thanks especially for his kindness in the 
Oregon matter. Yours as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 

November 21, 1849. — Letter to the Editor op the 
"Chicago Journal." 

Springfield, November 21, 1849. 
Editor of the " Chicago Journal." 

Dear Sir : Some person, probably yourself, has sent me the num- 
ber of your paper containing an extract of a supposed speech of Mr. 
Linder, together with your editorial comments. As my name is 
mentioned both in the speech and in the comments, and as my at- 
tention is directed to the article by a special mark in the paper sent 
me, it is perhaps expected that I should take some notice of it. I 
have to say, then, that I was absent from before the commencement 
till after the close of the late session of the legislature, and that the 
fact of such a speech having been delivered never came to my know- 
ledge till I saw a notice of your article in the '^ Illinois Journal," one 
day before your paper reached me. Had the intention of any Whig 
to deliver such a speech been known to me, I should, to the utmost 
of my ability, have endeavored to prevent it. When Mr. Butterfield 
was appointed Commissioner of the Land Office, I expected him to 
be an able and faithful officer, and nothing has since come to my 
knowledge disappointing that expectation. As to Mr. Ewiug, his 
position has been one of great difficult}^. I believe him, too, to be 
an able and faithful officer. A more intimate acquaintance with 
him would probably change the views of most of those who have 
complained of him. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 



160 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

In the Illinois legislature, Mr. Linder said : 

. . . He sliould speak not as a disappointed politician, but as an inde- 
pendent working Whig, who had never apphed for an office in his life ; 
and the individual of whom he desired to speak was the Hon. Thomas Ew- 
ing, of Ohio, minister of the Home Department, — a man who was unsuited 
to wield the imiuense pati'onage placed in his hands, from the fact that he 
was hostile to all that was popular, having no sympathies with the people, 
and the people no sjTnpathies with him ; the man who disposed of the of- 
fices and honors at his disposal more hke a prince than the minister and ser- 
vant of a republican people. I speak plainly, sir, for I want what I say to be 
published, that it may reach the individual for whom it is intended, — the 
man who could disregard the almost unanimous wish of the people — the 
Whig people of Illinois, — and overlook the claims of such men as Lincoln, 
Edwards, and Morrison, and appoint a man known as an anti-war fed- 
eralist of 1812, and one who avails himself of eveiy opportunity to express 
his contempt of the people — a man who could not, as against any one of 
his competitors, have obtained one twentieth of the votes of Illinois. (I re- 
fer, sir, to Justin Buttei'field, Commissioner of the General Land Office.) 
Such a man as Ewing has no right to rule the cabinet of a repubhcan pres- 
ident. He is imiversally odious, and stinks in the nostrils of the nation. 
He is as a lump of ice, an unfeeling, unsympathizing aristocrat, a rough, 
imperious, uncouth, and unamiable man. Such a minister, in a four years' 
administration, would ruin the popularity of forty presidents and as many 
heroes. Sir, is it wonderful that the popular elections are turning against 
us ? I am not at all surpiised at it. If General Taylor retains him two 
years longer in his cabinet, he wiU find himself without a corporal's guard 
in the popular branch of our national legislature. 

December 15, 1849. — Letter to . 



Springpield, December 15, 1849. 

, Esq. 

Dear Sir : On my return from Kentucky, I found your letter of 
the 7th of November, and have delayed answering; it till now, for the 
reason I now briefly state. From the beginning of our acquain- 
tance I have felt the greatest kindness for you, and had supposed it 
was reciprocated on your part. Last summer, under circumstances 
which I mentioned to you, I was painfully constrained to withhold a 
recommendation which you desired, and shortly afterward I learned, 
in such a way as to believe it, that you were indulging in open abuse 
of me. Of course my feelings were wounded. On receiving your 
last letter, the question occurred whether you were attempting to use 
me at the same time you would injure me, or whether you might 
not have been misrepresented to me. If the former, I ought not to 
answer you; if the latter, I ought; and so I have remained in sus- 
pense. I now inclose you the letter, which you may use if you see fit. 

Yours, etc., A. LmcoLN. 

February 23, 1850. — Letter to John D. Johnston. 

Springfield, February 23, 1850. 
Dear Brother: Your letter about a mail contract was received 
yesterday. I have made out a bid for you at $120, guaranteed it 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 161 

myself, got our P. M. here to certify it, and send it on. Your former 
letter, concerning some man's claim for a pension, was also received. 
I had the claim examined by those who are practised in such matters, 
and they decide he cannot get a pension. 

As you make no mention of it, I suppose you had not learned that 
we lost our' little boy. He was sick fifteen days, and died in the 
morning of the first day of this month. It was not our first, but our 
second child. We miss him very much. Your brother, in haste, 

A. Lincoln. 

To John D. Johnston. 

June 3, 1850, — Resolutions on the Death of 
Judge Nathaniel Pope. 

Circuit and District Court of the U. S. in and for the State and 
District of Illinois. Monday, June 3, 1850. 

... On the opening of the Court this morning, the Hon. A. 
Lincoln, a member of the Bar of this Court, suggested the death of 
the Hon. Nathaniel Pope, late a judge of this Court, siuce the ad- 
journment of the last term ; whereupon, in token of respect for the 
memory of the deceased, it is ordered that the Court do now adjourn 
until to-morrow morning at ten o'clock. . . . 

The Hon. Stephen T. Logan, the Hon. Norman H. Purple, the 
Hon. David L. Gregg, the Hon. A. Lincoln, and George W. Meeker, 
Esq., were appointed a Committee to prepare resolutions. . . . 
Whereupon, the Hon. Stephen T. Logan, in behalf of the Commit- 
tee, presented the following preamble and resolutions : 

Whereas the Hon. Nathaniel Pope, District Judge of the United States 
Com-t for the District of IlHnois, having departed this hfe during the last 
vacation of said Court, and the members of the bar of said Court enter- 
taining the highest veneration for his memory, a profound respect for his 
ability, great experience, and learning as a Judge, and cherishing for his 
many virtues, public and private, his earnest simplicity of character and 
unostentatious deportment both in his public and private relations, the 
most hvely and affectionate recoUections, have 

Resolved, That as a manifestation of theh deep sense of the loss which 
has been sustained in his death, they will wear the usual badge of mourn- 
ing during the residue of the term. 

Eesolved, That the Chahman communicate to the family of the deceased 
a copy of these proceedings, with an assurance of our sincere condolence 
on account of their hea^'y bereavement. 

Resolved, That the Hon. A. WiUiams, District Attorney of this Court, be 
requested in behalf of the meeting to present these proceedings to the Cii*- 
cuit Court, and respectfully to ask that they may be entered on the records. 
E. N. Powell, Sec'y. Samuel H. Treat, CK'n. 

[July 1, 1850?]. — Fragment. Notes for a Lecture. 

Niagara Falls ! By what mysterious power is it that millions 
and millions are drawn from all parts of the world to gaze upon 
Niagara Falls ? There is no mystery about the thing itself. Every 
Vol. I.— 11. 



162 ADDEESSES AND LETTEES OP ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

effect is just as any intelligent man, knowing the causes, would 
anticipate without seeing it. If the water moving onward in a great 
river reaches a point where there is a perpendicular jog of a hun- 
dred feet in descent in the bottom of the river, it is plain the water 
will have a violent and continuous plunge at that point. It is also 
plain, the water, thus plunging, will foam and roar, and send up a 
mist continuously, in which last, during sunshine, there will be per- 
petual rainbows. The mere physical of Niagara Falls is only this. 
Yet this is really a very small part of that world's wonder. Its 
power to excite reflection and emotion is its great charm. The geol- 
ogist wiU demonstrate that the plunge, or fall, was once at Lake 
Ontario, and has worn its way back to its present position ; he will 
ascertain how fast it is wearing now, and so get a basis for deter- 
mining how long it has been wearing back from Lake Ontario, and 
finally demonstrate by it that this world is at least fourteen thousand 
years old. A philosopher of a slightly different turn will say, *' Ni- 
agara Falls is only the lip of the basin out of which pours all the 
surplus water which rains down on two or three hundred thousand 
square miles of the earth's sui'face." He will estimate with approx- 
imate accuracy that five hundred thousand tons of water fall with 
their full weight a distance of a hundred feet each minute — thus ex- 
erting a force equal to the lifting of the same weight, through the 
same space, in the same time. And then the further reflection comes 
that this vast amount of water, constantly pounding down, is sup- 
plied by an equal amount constantly lifted up, by the sun; and still 
he says, " If this much is lifted up for this one space of two or three 
hundred thousand square miles, an equal amount must be lifted up 
for every other equal space" ; and he is overwhelmed in the contem- 
plation of the vast power the sun is constantly exerting in the quiet 
noiseless operation of lifting water up to be rained down again. 

But still there is more. It calls up the indefinite past. When 
Columbus first sought this continent — when Christ suffered on the 
cross — when Moses led Israel through the Red Sea — nay, even 
when Adam first came from the hand of his Maker: then, as now, 
Niagara was roaring here. The eyes of that species of extinct giants 
whose bones fill the mounds of America have gazed on Niagara, as 
ours do now. Contemporary with the first race of men, and older 
than the first man, Niagara is strong and fresh to-day as ten thou- 
sand years ago. The Mammoth and Mastodon, so long dead that 
fragments of their monstrous bones alone testify that they ever 
lived, have gazed on Niagara — in that long, long time never still 
for a single moment [never dried], never froze, never slept, never 
rested. 

[July 1, 1850?] — Fragment. Notes for Law Lecture. 

I am not an accomplished lawyer. I find quite as much material 
for a lecture in those points wherein I have failed, as in those 
wherein I have been moderately successful. The leading rule for 
the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave 
nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day. Never let your 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 163 

correspondence fall behind. Whatever piece of business you have 
in hand, before stopping, do all the labor pertaining to it which 
can then be done. When you bring a common-law suit, if you have 
the facts for doing so, write the declaration at once. If a law point 
be involved, examine the books, and note the authority you rely on 
upon the declaration itself, where you are sure to find it when 
wanted. The same of defenses and pleas. In business not likely 
to be litigated, — ordinary collection cases, foreclosures, partitions, 
and the like, — make all examinations of titles, and note them, and 
even draft orders and decrees in advance. This course has a 
triple advantage ; it avoids omissions and neglect, saves your labor 
when once done, performs the labor out of court when you have 
leisure, rather than in court when you have not. Extemporaneous 
speaking should be practised and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue 
to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other re- 
spects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a 
speech. And yet there is not a more fatal error to young lawyers 
than relying too much on speech-making. If any one, upon his 
rare powers of speaking, shaU claim an exemption from the drudgery 
of the law, his case is a failure in advance. 

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise 
whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is 
often a real loser — in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peace- 
maker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. 
There will still be business enough. 

Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than 
one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who 
habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in 
titles, whereon to stir up strife, and put money in his pocket ? A 
moral tone ought to be infused into the profession which should 
drive such men out of it. 

The matter of fees is important, far beyond the mere question of 
bread and butter involved. Properly attended to, fuUer justice is 
done to both lawyer and client. An exorbitant fee should never be 
claimed. As a general rule never take your whole fee in advance, 
nor any more than a small retainer. When fully paid beforehand, 
you are more than a common mortal if you can feel the same in- 
terest in the case, as if something was still in prospect for you, as 
well as for your client. And when you lack interest in the case the 
job will very likely lack skill and diligence in the performance. 
Settle the amount of fee and take a note in advance. Then you will 
feel that you are working for something, and you are sure to do 
your work faithfully and well. Never sell a fee note — at least not 
before the consideration service is performed. It leads to negli- 
gence and dishonesty — negligence by losing interest in the case, 
and dishonesty in refusing to refund when you have allowed the 
consideration to fall. 

There is a vague popular belief that lawyers are necessarily dis- 
honest. I say vague, because when we consider to what extent 
confidence and honors are reposed in and conferred upon lawyers 
by the people, it appears improbable that their impression of dis- 



164 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

honesty is very distinct and vivid. Yet the impression is common, 
almost universal. Let no young man choosing the law for a call- 
ing for a moment yield to the popular belief — resolve to be honest 
at all events ; and if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest 
lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. Choose some 
other occupation, rather than one in the choosing of which you do, 
in advance, consent to be a knave. 



Januaiy [2 ?], 1851.— Letter to John D. Johnston. 

January 2, 1851. 

Dear Johnston : Your request for eighty dollars I do not think it 
best to comply with now. At the various times when I have helped 
you a little you have said to me, " We can get along very well now " ; 
but in a very short time I find you in the same difficulty again. 
Now, this can only happen by some defect in your conduct. What 
that defect is, I think I know. You are not lazy, and still you are 
an idler. I doubt whether, since I saw you, you have done a good 
whole day's work in any one day. You do not very much dislike to 
work, and still you do not work much, merely because it does not 
seem to you that you could get much for it. This habit of uselessly 
wasting time is the whole difficulty ; it is vastly important to you, 
and still more so to your children, that you should break the habit. 
It is more important to them, because they have longer to live, and 
can keep out of an idle habit before they are in it, easier than they 
can get out after they are in. 

You are now in need of soine money; and what I propose is, that 
you shall go to work, "■ tooth and nail," for somebody who \\\\\ give 
you money for it. Let father' and your boys take charge of your 
things at home, prepare for a crop, and make the crop, and you go 
to work for the best money wages, or in discharge of any debt you 
owe, that you can get ; and, to secure you a fair reward for your la- 
bor, I now promise you, that for every dollar you will, between this 
and the first of May, get for your own labor, either in money or as 
your own indebtedness, I will then give you one other dollar. By 
this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a month, from me you will 
get ten more, making twenty dollars a month for your work. In 
this I do not mean you shall go off to St. Louis, or the lead mines, 
or the gold mines in California, but I mean for you to go at it for 
the best wages you can get close to home in Coles County. Now, if 
you will do this, you will be soon out of debt, and, what is better, 
you will have a habit that wiU keep you from getting in debt again. 
But, if I should now clear you out of debt, next year you would be 
just as deep in as ever. You say you would almost give your place 
in heaven for seventy or eighty dollars. Then you value your place 
in heaven very cheap, for I am sure you can, with the offer I make, 
get the seventy or eighty dollars for four or five mouths' work. 
You say if I will furnish you the money you will deed me the land, 
and, if you don't pay the money back,' you will deliver possession. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 165 

Nonsense ! If you can't now live with the land, how will you then 
live without it ? You have always been kind to me, and I do not 
mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow 
my advice, you will find it wortli more than eighty times eighty 
dollars to you. Affectionately your brother, 

A. Lincoln. 



January 12, 1851. — Letter to John D. Johnston. 

Springfield, January 12, 1851. 

Bear Brother : On the day before yesterday I received a letter 
from Harriet, written at Greenup. She says she has just returned 
from your house, and that father is very low and will hardly re- 
cover. She also says you have written me two letters, and that al- 
though you do not expect me to come now, you wonder that I do 
not write. 

I received both your letters, and although I have not answered 
them, it is not because I have forgotten them, or been uninterested 
about them, but because it appeared to me that I could write nothing 
which would do any good. You already know I desire that neither 
father nor mother shall be in want of any comfort, either in health 
or sickness, while they live ; and I feel sure you have not failed to 
use my name, if necessary, to procure a doctor, or anything else for 
father in his present sickness. My business is such that I could 
hardly leave home now, if it was not as it is, that my own wife is 
sick-a-bed. (It is a case of baby-sickness, and I suppose is not dan- 
gerous.) I sincerely hope father may recover his health, but at all 
events, tell him to remember to call upon and confide in our great 
and good and merciful Maker, who will not turn away from him in 
any extremity. He notes the fall of a sparrow, and numbers the 
hairs of our heads, and He will not forget the dying man who puts 
his trust in Him. Say to him that if we could meet now it is doubt- 
ful whether it would not be more painful than pleasant, but that if it 
be his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyous meeting with many 
loved ones gone before, and where the rest of us, through the help 
of God, hope ere long to join them. 

Write to me again when you receive this. Affectionately, 

A. Lincoln. 



August 31, 1851. — Letter to John D. Johnston. 

Springfield, August 31, 1851. 
Bear Brother : Inclosed is the deed for the land. We are all well, 
and have nothing in the way of news. We have had no cholera here 
for about two weeks. Give my love to all, and especially to mother. 

Yours, as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 



166 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



November 4, 1851.— Letter to John D. Johnston. 

Shelbyville, November 4, 1851. 

Bear Brother : When I came into Charleston day before yesterday, 
I learned that you are anxious to sell the land where you live and 
move to Missouri. I have been thinking of this ever since, and can- 
not but think such a notion is utterly foolish. What can you do in 
Missouri better than here ? Is the land any richer ? Can you there, 
any more than here, raise corn and wheat and oats without work ? 
Will anybody there, any more than here, do your work for you ? If 
you intend to go to work, there is no better place than right where you 
are ; if you do not intend to go to work, you cannot get along any where. 
Squirming and crawling about from place to place can do no good. 
You have raised no crop this year ; and what you reaUy want is to 
sell the land, get the money, and spend it. Part with the land you 
have, and, my life upon it, you will never after own a spot big enough 
to bury you in. Half you wiU get for the land you will spend in 
moving to Missouri, and the other half you will eat, drink, and wear 
out, and no foot of land will be bought. Now, I feel it my duty to 
have no hand in such a piece of foolery. I feel that it is so even on 
your own account, and particularly on mother's account. The east- 
ern forty acres I intend to keep for mother while she lives ; if you 
wiU not cultivate it, it will rent for enough to support her — at least, 
it will rent for something. Her dower in the other two forties she 
can let you have, and no thanks to me. Now, do not misunderstand 
this letter; I do not write it in any unkindness. I write it in order, 
if possible, to get you to face the truth, which truth is, you are desti- 
tute because you have idled away all your time. Your thousand pre- 
tenses for not getting along better are all nonsense; they deceive 
nobody but yourself. Go to work is the only cure for your case. 

A word to mother. Chapman teUs me he wants you to go and live 
with him. If I were you I would try it awhile. If you get tired of 
it (as I think you will not), you can return to your own home. 
Chapman feels very kindly to you, and I have no doubt he will make 
your situation very pleasant. Sincerely youi- son, 

A. Lincoln. 



November 9, 1851.— Letter to John D. Johnston. 

Shelbyville, November 9, 1851. 

Bear Brother : When I wrote you before, I had not received your 
letter. I still think as I did, but if the land can be sold so that I get 
three hundred dollars to put to interest for mother, I will not object, 
if she does not. But before I will make a deed, the money must be 
had, or secured beyond all doubt, at ten per cent. 

As to Abram, I do not want him, on my own account ; but I un- 
derstand he wants to live with me, so that he can go to school and 
get a fair start in the world, which I very much wish him to have. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 167 

When I reach home, if I can make it convenient to take, I will take 
him, provided there is no mistake between us as to the object and 
terms of my taking him. In haste, as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 

December [4?], 1851.— Call for Whig Convention. 

To the Whigs of Illinois. 

The Whigs of the State of Illinois are respectfully requested to 
meet in convention at Springfield, on the fourth Monday of Decem- 
ber next, to take into consideration such action as upon consultation 
and deliberation may be deemed necessary, proper, and effective 
for the best interests of the party, and to secure a more thorough 
organization of the Whig party at an early day. 
(Signed) 
Abraham Lincoln, Isaac Hardy, O. H. Browning, 

J, T. Stuart, Horace Miller, C. W. Craig, 

J. C. Conkling, E. B. Washburne, J. L. Wilson, 

H. O. Merriman, Henry Watterman, B. G. Wheeler, 
Geo. W. Meeker, Ezra Griffith, H. D. Risley, 

J. O. Norton, Samuel Haller, Levi Davis, 

Churchill Coffing, Joseph T. Eccles, B. S. Edwards, 
Joseph Gillespie, Jas. W. Singleton, And many others. 



July 16, 1852. — Eulogy on Henry Clay Delivered in the State 
House at Springfield, Illinois. 

On the fourth day of July, 1776, the people of a few feeble and 
oppressed colonies of Great Britain, inhabiting a portion of the 
Atlantic coast of North America, publicly declared their national 
independence, and made their appeal to the justice of their cause 
and to the God of battles for the maintenance of that declaration. 
That people were few in number and without resources, save only 
their wise heads and stout hearts. Within the first year of that 
declared independence, and while its maintenance was yet proble- 
matical, — while the bloody struggle between those resolute rebels 
and their haughty would-be masters was still waging, — of undis- 
tinguished parents and in an obscure district of one of those col- 
onies Henry Clay was born. The infant nation and the infant child 
began the race of life together. For three quarters of a century 
they have traveled hand in hand. They have been companions 
ever. The nation has passed its perils, and it is free, prosperous, 
and powerful. The child has reached his manhood, his middle age, 
his old age, and is dead. In all that has concerned the nation the 
man ever sympathized ; and now the nation mourns the man. 

The day after his death one of the public journals, opposed to 
him politically, held the following pathetic and beautiful language, 
which I adopt partly because such high and exclusive eulogy, 
originating with a political friend, might offend good taste, but 



168 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

chiefly because I could not in any language of my own so well 

express my thoughts: 

Alas ! who can realize that Henry Clay is dead ! Wlio can realize that 
never again that majestic form shall rise in the council-chambers of his coun- 
try to beat back the storms of anarchy which may threaten, or pour the 
oil of peace upon the troubled billows as they rage and menace around 1 
Who can realize tliat the workings of that mighty mind have ceased, that 
the throbbings of that gallant heart are stilled, that the mighty sweep of 
that graceful arm will be felt no more, and the magic of that eloquent 
tongue, which spake as spake no other tongue besides, is hushed — hushed 
for ever ! Who can realize that freedom's champion, the champion of a 
civUized world and of all tongues and kindreds of people, has indeed fallen ! 
Alas, in those dark hours of peril and dread which our land has experi- 
enced, and which she may be called to experience again, to whom now may 
her people look up for that counsel and advice which only wisdom and 
experience and patriotism can give, and which only the undoubting con- 
fidence of a nation will receive 1 Perchance in the whole circle of the 
great and gifted of our land there remains but one on whose shoulders the 
mighty mantle of the departed statesman may faU; one who while we 
now write is doubtless pouring his tears over the bier of his brother and 
friend — brother, friend, ever, yet in political sentiment as far apart as 
party could make them. Ah, it is at times like these that the petty dis- 
tinctions of mere party disappear. We see only the great, the grand, the 
noble featiu-es of the departed statesman ; and we do not even beg permis- 
sion to bow at his feet and mingle our tears wdth those who have ever been 
his political adherents — we do [not] beg this permission, we claim it as a 
right, though we feel it as a privilege . Henry Clay belonged to his country — 
to the world ; mere party cannot claim men like him. His career has been 
national, his fame has flUed the earth, his memory will endure to the last 
syllable of recorded time. 

Henry Clay is dead! He breathed his last on yesterday, at twenty 
minutes after eleven, in his chamber at Washington. To those who fol- 
lowed his lead in public affairs, it more appropriately belongs to pronoimce 
his eulogy and pay specific honors to the memory of the illustrious dead. 
But all Americans may show the grief which his death inspires, for his 
character and fame are national property. As on a question of lioerty he 
knew no North, no South, no East, no West, but only the Union which held 
them all in its sacred circle, so now his countrymen will know no grief that 
is not as wide-spread as the bovmds of the confederacy. The career of 
Henry Clay was a pubUc career. From his youth he has been devoted to 
the pubhc service, at a period, too, in the world's history justly regarded as 
a remarkable era in human affairs. He witnessed in the beginning the 
throes of the French Revolution. He saw the rise and fall of Napoleon. 
He was called upon to legislate for America, and direct her pohcy when all 
Europe was the battle-field of contending dynasties, and when the struggle 
for supremacy imperiled the rights of all neutral nations. His voice spoke 
war and peace in the contest with Great Britain. 

When Greece rose against the Turks and struck for liberty, his name was 
mingled with the battle-cry of freedom. When South America threw off the 
thraldom of Spain, his speeches were read at the head of her armies by 
Bolivar. His name has been, and will continue to be, hallowed in two hemi- 
spheres, for it is 

" One of the few, the immortal names 
That were not born to die ! " 

To the ardent patriot and profound statesman, he added a quality pos- 
sessed by few of the gifted on earth. His eloquence has not been sui'passed. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 169 

In the effective power to move the heart of man, Clay was without an equal, 
and the heaven -born endowment^ in the spirit of its origin, has been most 
conspicuously exhibited against intestine feud. On at least three impor- 
tant occasions he has quelled our civil commotions by a power and influ- 
ence which belonged to no other statesman of his age and times. And in 
our last internal discord, when this Union trembled to its center, in old age 
he left the shades of private life, and gave the death-blow to fraternal 
strife, with the vigor of his earher years, in a series of senatorial efforts 
which in themselves would bring immortality by challenging compai'ison 
with the efforts of any statesman in any age. He exorcised the demon 
which possessed the body politic, and gave peace to a distracted land. Alas ! 
the achievement cost him his life. He sank day by day to the tomb — his 
pale but noble brow bound with a triple wreath, put there by a grateful 
country. May his ashes rest in peace, while his spirit goes to take its sta- 
tion among the great and good men who preceded him. 

While it is customary and proper upon occasions like the present 
to give a brief sketch of the life of the deceased, in the case of Mr. 
Clay it is less necessary than most others ; for his biography has 
been written and rewritten, and read and reread, for the last twenty- 
five years ; so that, with the exception of a few of the latest inci- 
dents of his life, all is as well known as it can be. The short sketch 
which I give is, therefore, merely to maintain the connection of this 
discourse. 

Henry Clay was born on the twelfth day of April, 1777, in Han- 
over County, Virginia. Of his father, who died in the fourth or 
fifth year of Henry's age, little seems to be known, except that he 
was a respectable man and a preacher of the Baptist persuasion. 
Mr. Clay's education to the end of life was comparatively lim- 
ited. I say "to the end of life," because I have understood that 
from time to time he added something to his education during 
the greater part of his whole life. Mr. Clay's lack of a more per- 
fect early education, however it may be regretted generally, teaches 
at least one profitable lesson : it teaches that in this country one 
can scarcely be so poor but that, if he will, he can acquire sufficient 
education to get through the world respectably. In his twenty- 
third year Mr. Clay was licensed to practise law, and emigrated to 
Lexington, Kentucky. Here he commenced and continued the prac- 
tice till the year 1803, when he was first elected to the Kentucky 
legislature. By successive elections he was continued in the legis- 
ture till the latter part of 1806, when he was elected to fill a vacancy 
of a single session in the United States Senate. In 1807 he was 
again elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives, and by that 
body chosen Speaker. In 1808 he was reelected to the same body. 
In 1809 he was again chosen to fill a vacancy of two years in the 
United States Senate. In 1811 he was elected to the United States 
House of Representatives, and on the first day of taking his seat in 
that body he was chosen its Speaker. In 1813 he was again elected 
Speaker. Early in 1814, being the period of our last British war, Mr. 
Clay was sent as commissioner, with others, to negotiate a treaty of 
peace, which treaty was concluded in the latter part of the same 
year. On his return from Europe he was again elected to the lower 
branch of Congress, and on taking his seat in December, 1815, was 



170 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

called to his old post — the Speaker's chair, a position in which he 
was retained by successive elections, with one brief intermission, till 
the inauguration of John Quincy Adams, in March, 1825. He was 
then appointed Secretary of State, and occupied that important sta- 
tion till the inauguration of General Jackson, in March, 1829. After 
this he returned to Kentucky, resumed the practice of law, and con- 
tinued it till the autumn of 1831, when he was by the legislature of 
Kentucky again placed in the United States Senate. By a reelec- 
tion he was continued in the Senate till he resigned his seat and re- 
tired, in March^ 1848. In December, 1849, he again took his seat in 
the Senate, which he again resigned only a few months before his 
death. 

By the foregoing it is perceived that the period from the begin- 
ning of Mr. Clay's official life in 1803 to the end of 1852 is but one 
year short of half a century, and that the sum of all the intervals 
in it will not amount to ten years. But mere duration of time in 
office constitutes the smallest part of Mr. Clay's history. Throughout 
that long period he has constantly been the most loved and most im- 
plicitly followed by friends, and the most dreaded by opponents, of 
all living American politicians. In all the great questions which 
have agitated the country, and particularly in those fearful crises, 
the Missouri question, the nullification question, and the late slavery 
question, as connected with the newly acquired territory, involving 
and endangering the stability of the Union, his has been the leading 
and most conspicuous part. In 1824 he was first a candidate for the 
Presidency, and was defeated; and although he was successively 
defeated for the same office in 1832 and in 1844, there has never been 
a moment since 1824 till after 1848 when a very large portion of the 
American people did not cling to him with an enthusiastic hope and 
purpose of still elevating him to the Presidencj^. With other men, 
to be defeated was to be forgotten ; but with him defeat was but a 
trifling incident, neither changing him nor the world's estimate of 
him. Even those of both politick parties who have been preferred 
to him for the highest office have run far briefer courses than he, 
and left him still shining high in the heavens of the political world. 
Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Polk, and Taylor all rose after, and 
set long before him. The speU — the long- enduring spell — with 
which the souls of men were bound to him is a miracle. Who can 
compass it? It is probably true he owed his preeminence to no one 
quality, but to a fortunate combination of several. He was surpass- 
ingly eloquent; but many eloquent men fail utterly, and they are 
not, as a class, generally successful. His judgment was excellent: 
but many men of good judgment live and die unnoticed. His will 
was indomitable; but this quality often secures to its owner nothing 
better than a character for useless obstinacy. These, then, were Mr. 
Clay's leading qualities. No one of them is very uncommon ; but all 
together are rarely combined in a single individual, and this is prob- 
ably the reason why such men as Henry Clay are so rare in the world. 

Mr, Clay's eloquence did not consist, as many fine specimens of 
eloquence do, of types and figures, of antithesis and elegant ar- 
rangement of words and sentences, but rather of that deeply earnest 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 171 

and impassioned tone and manner which can proceed only from 
great sincerity, and a thorough conviction in the speaker of the 
justice and importance of his cause. This it is that truly touches 
the chords of sympathy ; and those who heard Mr. Clay never failed 
to be moved by it, or ever afterward forgot the impression. All 
his efforts were made for practical effect. He never spoke merely 
to be heard. He never delivered a Fourth of July oration, or a 
eulogy on an occasion like this. As a politician or statesman, no 
one was so habitually careful to avoid all sectional ground. What- 
ever he did he did for the whole country. In the construction of his 
measures, he ever carefully surveyed every part of the field, and 
duly weighed every conflicting interest. Feeling as he did, and as 
the truth surely is, that the world's best hope depended on the con- 
tinued Union of these States, he was ever jealous of and watchful 
for whatever might have the slightest tendency to separate them. 

Mr. Clay's predominant sentiment, from first to last, was a deep 
devotion to the cause of human liberty — a strong sympathy with 
the oppressed everywhere, and an ardent wish for their elevation. 
With him this was a primary and all-controlling passion. Sub- 
sidiary to this was the conduct of his whole life. He loved his 
country partly because it was his own country, and mostly because 
it was a free country ; and he burned with a zeal for its advance- 
ment, prosperity, and glory, because he saw in such the advance- 
ment, prosperity, and glory of human liberty, human right, and 
human nature. He desired the prosperity of his countrymen, partly 
because they were his countrymen, but chiefly to show to the world 
that free men could be prosperous. 

That his views and measures were always the wisest needs not to 
be affirmed: nor should it be on this occasion, where so many 
thinking differently join in doing honor to his memory. A free 
people in times of peace and quiet — when pressed by no common 
danger — naturally divide into parties. At such times the man who 
is of neither party is not, cannot be, of any consequence. Mr. Clay 
therefore was of a party. Taking a prominent part as he did, in all 
the great political questions of his country for the last half century, 
the wisdom of his course on many is doubted and denied by a large 
portion of his countrymen; and of such it is not now proper to 
speak particularly. But there are many others, about his course 
upon which there is little or no disagreement amongst intelligent 
and patriotic Americans. Of these last are the war of 1812, the Mis- 
souri question, nullification, and the now recent compromise mea- 
sures. In 1812 Mr. Clay, though not unknown, was still a young 
man. Whether we should go to war with Great Britain being the 
question of the day, a minority opposed the declaration of war by 
Congress, while tlie majority, though apparently inclined to war, 
had for years wavered, and hesitated to act decisively. Meanwhile 
British aggressions multiplied, and grew more daring and aggra- 
vated. By Mr. Clay more than any other man the struggle was 
brought to a decision in Congress. The question, being now fully 
before Congress, came up in a variety of ways in rapid succession, on 
most of which occasions Mr. Clay spoke. Adding to all the logic of 



172 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

which the subject was susceptible that noble inspiration which came 
to him as it came to no other, he aroused and nerved and inspired his 
friends, and confounded and bore down all opposition. Several of 
his speeches on these occasions were reported and are still extant, 
but the best of them all never was. During its delivery the reporters 
forgot their vocations, dropped their pens, and sat enchanted from 
near the beginning to quite the close. The speech now lives only 
in the memory of a few old men, and the enthusiasm with which 
they cherish their recollection of it is absolutely astonishing. The 
precise language of this speech we shall never know; but we do 
know — we cannot help knowing — that with deep pathos it pleaded 
the cause of the injured sailor, that it invoked the genius of the 
Revolution, that it apostrophized the names of Otis, of Henry, and 
of Washington, that it appealed to the interest, the pride, the 
honor, and the glory of the nation, that it shamed and taunted 
the timidity of friends, that it scorned and scouted and withered the 
temerity of domestic foes, that it bearded and defied the British 
lion, and, rising and swelling and maddening in its course, it 
sounded the onset, till the charge, the shock, the steady strug- 
gle, and the glorious victory all passed in vivid review before the 
entranced hearers. 

Important and exciting as was the war question of 1812, it never 
so alarmed the sagacious statesmen of the country for the safety of 
the Republic as afterward did the Missouri question. This sprang 
from that unfortunate source of discord — negro slavery. When 
our Federal Constitution was adopted, we owned no territory beyond 
the limits or ownership of the States, except the territory northwest 
of the River Ohio and east of the Mississippi. What has since been 
formed into the States of Maine, Kentucky, and Tennessee, was, I be- 
lieve, within the limits of or owned by Massachusetts, Virginia, and 
North Carolina. As to the Northwestern Territory, provision had 
been made even before the adoption of the Constitution that slavery 
should never go there. On the admission of States into the Union, 
carved from the territory we owned before the Constitution, no ques- 
tion, or at most no considerable question, arose about slavery — 
those which were within the limits of or owned by the old States 
following respectively the condition of the parent State, and those 
within the Northwest Territory following the previously made pro- 
vision. But in 1803 we purchased Louisiana of the French, and it 
included with much more what has since been formed into the State 
of Missouri. With regard to it, nothing had been done to forestall 
the question of slavery. When, therefore, in 1819, Missouri, having 
formed a State constitution, without excluding slavery, and with 
slavery already actually existing within its limits, knocked at the 
door of the Union for admission, almost the entire representation of 
the non-slaveholding States objected. A fearful and angry struggle 
instantly followed. This alarmed thinking men more than any pre- 
vious question, because, unlike all the former, it divided the country 
by geographical lines. Other questions had their opposing partizans 
in all localities of the country and in almost every family, so that no 
division of the Union could foUow such without a separation of 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 173 

friends to quite as great an extent as that of opponents. Not so with 
the Missouri question. On this a geographical line could be traced, 
which in the main would separate opponents only. This was the 
danger. Mr. Jefferson, then in retirement, wrote : 

I had for a long time ceased to read newspapers or to pay any attention 
to public affau's, confident they were in good hands and content to be a 
passenger in our bark to the shore from which I am not distant. But this 
momentous question, hke a fire-beU in the night, awakened and filled me 
with terror. I considered it at once as the kneh of the Union. It is hushed, 
indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. 
A geogi-aphical line coinciding with a marked principle, moral and poUti- 
cal, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be 
obliterated, and every irritation will mark it deeper and deeper. I can say 
with conscious truth that there is not a man on earth who would sacrifice 
more than I would to reheve us from this heavy reproach in any practicable 
Avay. The cession of that kind of property — for it is so misnamed — is a bag- 
atelle which would not cost me a second thought if in that way a general 
emancipation and expatriation could be effected, and gradually and with 
due sacrifices I think it might be. But as it is, we have the wolf by the 
ears, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go. Justice is in one 
scale, and self-preservation in the other. 

Mr. Clay was in Congress, and, perceiving the danger, at once en- 
gaged his whole energies to avert it. It began, as I have said, in 
1819 ; and it did not terminate till 1821. Missouri would not yield 
the point; and Congress — that is, a majority in Congress — by re- 
peated votes showed a determination not to admit the State unless 
it should yield. After several failures and great labor on the part 
of Mr. Clay to so present the question that a majority could consent 
to the admission, it was by a vote rejected, and as all seemed to 
think, finally. A sullen gloom hung over the nation. All felt that 
the rejection of Missouri was equivalent to a dissolution of the 
Union, because those States which already had what Missouri was 
rejected for refusing to relinquish would go with Missouri. All 
deprecated and deplored this, but none saw how to avert it. For 
the judgment of members to be convinced of the necessity of yield- 
ing was not the whole difficulty ; each had a constituency to meet 
and to answer to. Mr. Clay, though worn down and exhausted, was 
appealed to by members to renew his efforts at compromise. He 
did so, and by some judicious modifications of his plan, coupled with 
laborious efforts with individual members and his own overmaster- 
ing eloquence upon that floor, he finally secured the admission of 
the State. Brightly and captivating as it had previously shown, 
it was now perceived that his great eloquence was a mere embellish- 
ment, or at most but a helping hand to his inventive genius, and 
his devotion to his country in the day of her extreme peril. 

After the settlement of the Missouri question, although a portion 
of the American people have differed with Mr. Clay, and a majority 
even appear generally to have been opposed to him on questions of 
ordinary administration, he seems constantly to have been regarded 
by all as the man for a crisis. Accordingly, in the days of nullifi- 
cation, and more recently in the reappearance of the slavery ques- 
tion connected with our territory newly acquired of Mexico, the 



174 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

task of devising a mode of adjustment seems to have been cast 
upon Mr. Clay by common consent — and his performance of the 
task in each case was little else than a Uteral fulfilment of the 
public expectation. 

Mr. Clay's efforts in behalf of the South Americans, and after- 
ward in behalf of the Greeks, in the times of their respective strug- 
gles for civil liberty, are among the finest on record, upon the 
noblest of all themes, and bear ample corroboration of what I have 
said was his ruling passion — a love of liberty and right, unselfishly, 
and for their own sakes. 

Having been led to allude to domestic slavery so frequently al- 
ready, I am unwilling to close without referring more particularly 
to Mr. Clay's views and conduct in regard to it. He ever was on 
principle and in feeling opposed to slavery. The very earliest, and 
one of the latest, public efforts of his life, separated by a period of 
more than fifty years, were both made in favor of gradual emanci- 
pation. He did not perceive that on a question of human right the 
negroes were to be excepted from the human race. And yet Mr. 
Clay was the owner of slaves. Cast into life when slavery was al- 
ready widely spread and deeply seated, he did not perceive^ as I 
think no wise man has perceived, how it could be at once eradicated 
without producing a greater evil even to the cause of human liberty 
itself. His feeling and his judgment, therefore, ever led him to 
oppose both extremes of opinion on the subject. Those who would 
shiver into fragments the Union of these States, tear to tatters its 
now venerated Constitution, and even burn the last copy of the 
Bible, rather than slavery should continue a single hour, together 
with all their more halting sympathizers, have received, and are 
receiving, their just execration; and the name and opinions and 
influence of Mr. Clay are fully and, as I trust, effectually and en- 
duringly arrayed against them. But I would also, if I could, array 
his name, opinions, and influence against the opposite extreme — 
against a few but an increasing number of men who, for the sake 
of perpetuating slavery, are beginning to assail and to ridicule the 
white man's charter of freedom, the declaration that " all men are 
created free and equal." So far as I have learned, the first American 
of any note to do or attempt this was the late John C. Calhoim ; 
and it I mistake not, it soon after found its way into some of the 
messages of the Governor of South Carolina. We, however, look 
for and are not much shocked by political eccentricities and here- 
sies in South Carolina. But only last year I saw with astonishment 
what purported to be a letter of a very distinguished and influen- 
tial clergyman of Virginia, copied, with apparent approbation, into 
a St. Louis newspaper, containing the following to me very unsat- 
isfactory language : 

I am fully aware that there is a text in some Bibles that is not in mine. 
Professional AboUtionists have made more use of it than of any passage 
in the Bible. It came, however, as I trace it, from Saint Voltaire, and was 
baptized by Thomas Jefferson, and since almost universally regarded as 
canonical authority, ** All men are bom free and equal." 

This is a genuine coin in the political currency of our generation. I am 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 175 

sorry to say that I have never seen two men of whom it is true. But I must 
admit I never saw the Siamese Twins, and therefore will not dogmatically 
say that no man ever saw a proof of this sage aphorism. 

This sounds strangelj' in republican America. The like was not 
heard in the fresher days of tne republic. Let us contrast with it 
the language of that truly national man whose life and death we 
now commemorate and lament. I quote from a speech of Mr. Claj'^ 
delivered before the American Colonization Society in 1827 : 

We are reproached with doing mischief by the agitation of this question. 
The society goes into no household to disturb its domestic tranquillity. It 
addresses itself to no slaves to weaken their obligations of obedience. It 
seeks to affect no man's property. It neither has the power nor the will to 
affect the property of any one contrary to his consent. The execution of 
its scheme would augment instead of diminishing the value of property left 
behind. The society, composed of free men, concerns itself only with the 
free. Collateral consequences we are not responsible for. It is not this 
society which has produced the great moral revolution which the age ex- 
hibits. What would they who thus reproach us have done ? If they 
would repress aU tendencies toward hberty and ultimate emancipation, 
they must do more than put down the benevolent efforts of society. They 
must go back to the era of our liberty and independence, and muzzle the 
cannon which thunders its annual joyous return. They must renew the 
slave-trade, with all its train of atrocities. They must suppress the work- 
ings of British philanthropy, seeking to meUorate the condition of the un- 
fortunate West Indian slave. They must arrest the career of South Amer- 
ican deliverance from thraldom. They must blow out the moral hght 
around us and extinguish that greatest torch of aU which America presents 
to a benighted world — pointing the way to their rights, their hberties, and 
their happiness. And when they have achieved all those purposes their 
work will be yet incomplete. They must penetrate the human soul, and 
eradicate the hght of reason and the love of Hberty. Then, and not till then, 
when universal darkness and despair prevail, can you perpetuate slaveiy 
and repress all sympathy and all humane and benevolent efforts among 
free men in behalf of the unhappy portion of our race doomed to bondage. 

The American Colonization Society was organized in 1816. Mr. 
Clay, though not its projector, was one of its earliest members; and 
he died, as for many preceding years he had been, its president. It 
was one of the most cherished objects of his direct care and consid- 
eration, and the association of his name with it has probably been 
its very greatest collateral support. He considered it no demerit in 
the society that it tended to relieve the slaveholders from the trou- 
blesome presence of the free negroes; but this was far from being 
its whole merit in his estimation. In the same speech from which 
we have quoted he says : 

There is a moral fitness in the idea of returning to Africa her children, 
whose ancestors have been torn from her by the ruthless hand of fraud and 
violence. Transplanted in a foreign land, they will carry back to their na- 
tive soil the rich fruits of rehgion, civilization, law, and hberty. May it not 
be one of the great designs of the Ruler of the universe, whose ways are 
often inscrutable by short-sighted mortals, thus to transform an original 
crime into a signal blessing to that most unfortunate portion of the globe *? 

This suggestion of the possible ultimate redemption of the African 
race and African continent was made twenty-five years ago. Every 



176 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

succeeding year has added strength to the hope of its realization. 
May it indeed be realized. Pharaoh's country was cursed with 
plagues, and his hosts were lost in the Red Sea, for striving to retain 
a captive people who had already served them more than four hun- 
dred years. May like disasters never befall us ! If, as the friends 
of colonization hope, the present and coming generations of our 
countrymen shall by any means succeed in freeing our land from the 
dangerous presence of slavery, and at the same time in restoring a 
captive people to their long-lost fatherland with bright prospects for 
the futiu'e, and this too so gradually that neither races nor individ- 
uals shall have suffered by the change, it will indeed be a glorious 
consummation. And if to such a consummation the efforts of Mr, 
Clay shall have contributed, it will be what he most ardently wished, 
and none of his labors will have been more valuable to his country 
and his kind. 

But Henry Clay is dead. His long and eventful life is closed. Our 
country is prosperous and powerful; but could it have been quite 
all it has been, and is, and is to be, without Henry Clay ? Such a 
man the times have demanded, and such in the providence of God 
was given us. But he is gone. Let us strive to deserve, as far as 
mortals may, the continued care of Divine Providence, trusting that 
in future national emergencies He will not fail to provide us the in- 
struments of safety and security. 

Note. — We are indebted for a copy of this speech to the courtesy of 
Major Wm. H. Bailhache, formerly one of the proprietors of the *' lUinois 
State Journal." 



November 1, 1852.— Opinion on the Illinois Election Law. 

GhalUnged Voters. 

Springfield, November 1, 1852. 
A leading article in the '' Daily Register " of this morning has in- 
duced some of our friends to request our opinion on the election laws 
as applicable to challenged voters. We have examined the present 
constitution of the State, the election law of 1849, and the unrepealed 
parts of the election law in the revised code of 1845 ; and we are of 
the opinion that any person taking the oath prescribed in the act of 
1849 is entitled to vote unless counter-proof be made satisfactory to 
a majority of the judges that such oath is untrue ; and that for the 
purpose of obtaining such counter-proof, the proposed voter may be 
asked questions in the way of cross-examination, and other inde- 
pendent testimony may be received. We base our opinion as to 
receiving counter-proof upon the unrepealed section nineteen of the 
election law in the revised code. 

A. Lincoln, 

B. S. Edwards, 
S. T. Logan. 

I concur in the foregoing opinion, 

S. H. Treat. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 177 

October 3, 1853. — Letter to M. Brayman. 

Pekes, October 3, 1853. 
M. Brayman, Esq. 

Dear Sir : Neither the county of McLean nor any one on its be- 
half has yet made any engagement with me in relation to its suit 
with the Illinois Central Railroad on the subject of taxation. I am 
now free to make an engagement for the road, and if you think of 
it you may " count me in." Please write me on receipt of this. I 
shall be here at least ten days. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

April 1, 1854. — Letter to Jesse Lincoln. 

Springfield, Illinois, April 1, 1854. 
3ry dear Sir: On yesterday I had the pleasure of receiving your 
letter of the 16th of March. From what you say there can be no 
doubt that you and I are of the same family. The history of your 
family, as you give it, is precisely what I have always heard, and 
partly know, of my own. As you have supposed, I am the grand- 
son of your uncle Abraham ; and the story of his death by the In- 
dians, and of Uncle Mordecai, then fourteen years old, killing one 
of the Indians, is the legend more strongly than all others im- 
printed upon my mind and memory. I am the son of grandfather's 
youngest son, Thomas. I have often heard my father speak of his 
uncle Isaac residing at Watauga (I think), near where the then States 
of Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee join, — you seem now to 
be some hundred miles or so west of that. I often saw Uncle Mor- 
decai, and Uncle Josiah but once in my life ; but I never resided 
near either of them. Uncle Mordecai died in 1831 or 2, in Hancock 
County, Illinois, where he had then recently removed from Ken- 
tucky, and where his children had also removed, and still reside, as 
I understand. Whether Uncle Josiah is dead or living, I cannot tell, 
not having heard from him for more than twenty years. When I 
last heard of him he was living on Big Blue River, in Indiana 
(Harrison Co., I think), and where he had resided ever since befoi-e 
the beginning of my recollection. My father (Thomas) died the 17th 
of January, 1851, in Coles County, Illinois, where he had resided 
twenty years. I am his only child. I have resided here, and here- 
abouts, twenty-three years. I am forty-five years of age, and have 
a wife and three children, the oldest eleven years. My wife was 
born and raised at Lexington, Kentucky ; and my connection with 
her has sometimes taken me there, where I have heard the older 
people of her relations speak of your uncle Thomas and his family. 
He IS dead long ago, and his descendants have gone to some part of 
Missouri, as I recollect what I was told. Wlien I was at Washing- 
ton in 1848, 1 got up a correspondence with David Lincoln, residing 
at Sparta, Rockingham County, Virginia, who, like yourself, was a 
first cousin of my father; but I forget, if he informed me, which of my 
grandfather's brothers was his father. With Col. Crozier, of whom 
Vol. I.— 12. 



178 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

you speak, I formed quite au intimate acquaintance, for a short 
one, while at Washington ; and when you meet him again I will 
thank you to present him my respects. Your present governor, 
Andrew Johnson, was also at Washington while I was ; and he told 
me of there being people of tlie name of Lincoln in Carter County, 
I think. I can no longer claim to be a young man myself ; but I 
infer that, as you are of the same generation as my father, you are 
some older. I shall be very glad to hear from you again. 

Very truly youi* relative, A. Lincoln. 



[July 1, 1854'?]. — Fragment. On Government. 

Government is a combination of the people of a country to effect 
certain objects by joint effort. The best framed and best adminis- 
tered governments are necessarily expensive; while by errors in 
frame and maladministration most of them are more onerous than 
they need be, and some of them very oppressive. Why, then, should 
we have government ? Why not each individual take to himself 
the whole fruit of his labor, without having any of it taxed away, in 
services, corn, or money ? Why not take just so much land as he 
can cultivate with his own hands, without buying it of any one? 

The legitimate object of government is " to do for the people what 
needs to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at 
all, or do so weU, for themselves." There are many such things — 
some of them exist independently of the injustice in the world. 
Making and maintaining roads, bridges, and the like ; providing for 
the helpless young and afflicted; common schools; and disposing of 
deceased men's property, are instances. 

But a far larger class of objects springs from the injustice of 
men. If one people will make war upon another, it is a necessity 
with that other to unite and cooperate for defense. Hence the 
military department. If some men will kill, or beat, or constrain 
others, or despoil them of property, by force, fraud, or noncom- 
pliance with contracts, it is a common object with peaceful and just 
men to prevent it. Hence the criminal and civil departments. 

[July 1, 1854?]. — Fragment. On Slavery. 

The ant who has toiled and dragged a crumb to his nest will 
furiousl}^ defend the fruit of his labor against whatever robber 
assails him. So plain that the most dumb and stupid slave that ever 
toiled for a master does constantly know that he is wronged. So 
plain that no one, high or low, ever does mistake it, except in a 
plainly selfish way ; for although volume upon volume is written to 
prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who 
wishes to take the good of it by being a slave himself. 

Most governments have been based, practically, on the denial of 
the equal rights of men, as I have, in part, stated them ; ours began 
by affirming those rights. They said, some men are too ignorant 
and vicious to share in government. Possibly so, said we ; and, by 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN 179 

your system, you would always keep them ignorant and vicious. 
We proposed to give all a chance; and we expected the weak to 
grow stronger, the ignorant wiser, and all better and happier 
together. 

We made the experiment, and the fruit is before us. Look at it, 
think of it. Look at it in its aggregate grandeur, of extent of 
country, and numbers of population — of ship, and steamboat, and 
railroad. 

[July 1, 1854?].— Fragment. On Slavery. 

Equality in society alike beats inequality, whether the latter be of 
the British aristocratic sort or of the domestic slavery sort. We 
know Southern men declare that their slaves are better off than 
hired laborers amongst us. How little they know whereof they 
speak ! There is no permanent class of hired laborers amongst us. 
Twenty-five years ago I was a hired laborer. The hired laborer of 
yesterday labors on his own account to-day, and will hii-e others to 
labor for him to-morrow. Advancement — improvement in condi- 
tion — is the order of things in a society of equals. As labor is the 
common burden of our race, so the effort of some to shift their share 
of the burden onto the shoulders of others is the great durable 
curse of the race. Originally a curse for transgression upon the 
whole race, when, as by slavery, it is concentrated on a part only, it 
becomes the double-refined curse of God upon his creatures. 

Free labor has the inspiration of hope ; pure slavery has no hope. 
The power of hope upon human exertion and happiness is wonderful. 
The slave-master himself has a conception of it, and hence the sys- 
tem of tasks among slaves. The slave whom you cannot drive with 
the lash to break seventy-five pounds of hemp in a day, if you will 
task him to break a hundred, and promise him pay for all he does 
over, he will break you a hundred and fifty. You have substituted 
hope for the rod. And yet perhaps it does not occur to you that to 
the extent of yoiu* gain in the case, you have given up the slave sys- 
tem and adopted the free system of labor. 

[July 1, 1854?]. — Fragment. On Slavery. 

If A can prove, however conclusively, that he may of right en- 
slave B, why may not B snatch the same argument and prove equally 
that he may enslave A ? You say A is white and B is black. It is 
color, then ; the lighter having the right to enslave the darker 1 Take 
care. By this rule you are to be slave to the first man you meet with 
a fairer skin than your own. You do not mean color exactly? You 
mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and 
therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By 
this rule you are to be slave to the first man you meet with an in- 
tellect superior to your own. But, say you, it is a question of inter- 
est, and if you make it your interest you have the right to enslave 
another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest he has the 
right to enslave you. 



180 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN 



[July 1^ 1854?]. — Fragment. On Government. 

The legitimate object of government is to do for a community 
of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, 
or cannot so well do, for themselves, in their separate and individ- 
ual capacities. In all that the people can individualh' do as well 
for themselves, government ought not to interfere. The desirable 
things which the individuals of a people cannot do, or cannot well 
do, for themselves, fall into two classes : those which have relation 
to wrongs, and those which have not. Each of these branch off 
into an infinite varietj' of subdivisions. 

The first — that in relation to wrongs — embraces all crimes, mis- 
demeanors, and non-performance of contracts. The other embraces 
all which, in its nature, and without wrong, requires combined ac- 
tion, as public roads and highways, public schools, charities, pau- 
perism, orphanage, estates of the deceased, and the machinery of 
government itself. 

From this it appears that if all men were just, there still would 
be some, though not so much, need of government. 



October 16, 1854. — Speech at Peoria, Illinois, in Reply to 
Senator Douglas. 

On Monday, October 16, Senator Douglas, by appointment, ad- 
dressed a large audience at Peoria. When he closed he was greeted 
with six hearty cheers, and the band in attendance played a stirring 
air. The crowd then began to call for Lincoln, who, as Judge 
Douglas had announced, was by agreement to answer him. Mr. 
Lincoln took the stand and said : 

I do not rise to speak now, if I can stipulate with the audience to 
meet me here at half -past six or at seven o'clock. It is now several 
minutes past five, and Judge Douglas has spoken over three hours. 
If you hear me at all, I wish you to hear me through. It will take 
me as long as it has taken him. That will carry us beyond eight 
o'clock at night. Now, every one of you who can remain that long 
can just as well get his supper, meet me at seven, and remain an 
hour or two later. The judge has already informed you that he is 
to have an hour to reply to me. I doubt not but you have been a 
little sui^jrised to learn that I have consented to give one of his high 
reputation and known ability this advantage of me. Indeed, my 
consenting to it, though reluctant, was not wholly unselfish, for I 
suspected, if it were understood that the judge was entirely done, 
you Democrats would leave and not hear me ; but by giving him 
the close, I felt confident you would stay for the fun of hearing him 
skin me. 

The audience signified their assent to the arrangement, and ad- 
journed to seven o'clock p. m., at which time they reassembled, and 
Mr. Lincoln spoke substantially as follows : 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN 181 

The repeal of the Missouri Corapromise, and the propriety of its 
restoration, constitute the subject of what I am about to say. As 
I desire to present my own connected view of this subject, my re- 
marks will not be specifically an answer to Judge Douglas ; yet, as 
I proceed, the main points he has presented will arise, and will re- 
ceive such respectful attention as I may be able to give them. I 
wish further to say that I do not propose to question the patriotism 
or to assail the motives of any man or class of men, but rather to 
confine myself strictly to the naked merits of the question. I also 
wish to be no less than national in all the positions I may take, and 
whenever I take ground which others have thought, or may think, 
narrow, sectional, and dangerous to the Union, I hope to give a 
reason which will appear sufficient, at least to some, why I think 
differently. 

And as this subject is no other than part and parcel of the larger 
general question of domestic slavery, I wish to make and to keep 
the distinction between the existing institution and the extension 
of it, so broad and so clear that no honest man can misunderstand 
me, and no dishonest one successfully misrepresent me. 

In order to a clear understanding of what the Missouri Com- 
promise is, a short history of the preceding kindred subjects will 
perhaps be proper. 

When we established our independence, we did not own or claim 
the country to which this compromise applies. Indeed, strictly 
speaking, the Confederacy then owned no country at all ; the States 
respectively owned the country within their limits, and some of them 
owned territory beyond their strict State limits. Virginia thus 
owned the Northwestern Territory — the countrj^ out of which the 
principal part of Ohio, all Indiana, all Illinois, all Michigan, and all 
Wisconsin have since been formed. She also owned (perhaps 
within her then Kmits) what has since been formed into the State 
of Kentucky. North Carolina thus owned what is now the State of 
Tennessee ; and South Carolina and Greorgia owned, in separate 
parts, what are now Mississippi and Alabama. Connecticut, I think, 
owned the little remaining part of Ohio, being the same where they 
now send Giddings to Congress, and beat all creation in making 
cheese. 

These territories, together with the States themselves, constitute 
all the country over which the Confederacy then claimed any sort 
of jurisdiction. We were then living under the Articles of Con- 
federation, which were superseded by the Constitution several years 
afterward. The question of ceding the territories to the General 
Government was set on foot. Mr. Jefferson, the author of the Dec- 
laration of Independence, and otherwise a chief actor in the Revo- 
lution ; then a delegate in Congress ; afterward, twice President ; 
who was, is, and perhaps will continue to be, the most distinguished 
politician of our history ; a Virginian by birth and continued resi- 
dence, and withal a slaveholder, — conceived the idea of taking that 
occasion to prevent slavery ever going into the Northwestern Terri- 
tory. He prevailed on the Virginia legislature to adopt his views, 
and to cede the Temtory, making the prohibition of slavery therein 



182 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

a condition of the deed.^ Congress accepted the cession with the 
condition; and the first ordinance (which the acts of Congi'ess 
were then called) for the government of the Territory provided that 
slavery should never be permitted therein. This is the famed 
"Ordinance of '87," so often spoken of. 

Thenceforward for sixty-one years, and until, in 1848, the last 
scrap of this Territory came into the Union as the State of Wiscon- 
sin, all parties acted in quiet obedience to this ordinance. It is now 
what Jefferson foresaw and intended — the happy home of teeming 
millions of free, white, prosperous people, and no slave among them. 

Thus, witii the author of the Declaration of Independence, the 
policy of prohibiting slavery in new territory originated. Thus, 
away back to the Constitution, in the pure, fresh, free breath of the 
Revolution, the State of Virginia and the National Congress put 
that policy into practice. Thus, through more than sixty of the best 
years of the republic, did that policy steadily work to its great and 
beneficent end. And thus, iu those five States, and in five millions 
of free, enterprising people, we have before us the rich fruits of this 
policy. 

But now new light breaks upon us. Now Congress declares this 
ought never to have been, and the like of it must never be again. 
The sacred right of self-government is grossly violated by it. We 
even find some men who drew their first breath — and every other 
breath of their lives — under this very restriction, now live in dread 
of absolute suffocation if they should be restricted in the " sacred 
right " of taking slaves to Nebraska. That perfect liberty they sigh 
for — the liberty of making slaves of other people — Jefferson never 
thought of, their own fathers never thought of, they never thought 
of themselves, a year ago. How fortunate for them they did not 
sooner become sensible of their great misery ! Oh, how difficult it is 
to treat with respect such assaults upon all we have ever really held 
sacred ! 

But to return to history. In 1803 we purchased what was then 
called Louisiana, of France. It included the present States of Loui- 
siana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa ; also the Territory of Minne- 
sota, and the present bone of contention, Kansas and Nebraska. 
Slavery already existed among the French at New Orleans, and to 
some extent at St. Louis. In 1812 Louisiana came into the Union 
as a slave State, without controversy. In 1818 or '19, Missouri 
showed signs of a wish to come in with slavery. This was resisted 
by Northern members of Congress ; and thus began the first great 
slavery agitation in the nation. This controversy lasted several 
months, and became very angry and exciting, — the House of Repre- 
sentatives voting steadily for the prohibition of slavery in Missouri, 
and the Senate voting as steadily against it. Threats of the break- 
ing up of the Union were freely made, and the ablest public men of 
the day became seriously alarmed. At length a compromise was 
made, in which, as in all compromises, both sides yielded something. 

1 Mr. Lincoln afterward authorized the correction of the error into 
which the report here falls, mth regard to the prohibition being made a 
condition of tlie deed. It was not a condition. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 183 

It was a law, passed on the 6th of March, 1820, providing that Mis- 
souri might come into the Union with slavery, but that in all the 
remaining part of the territory purchased of France, which lies 
north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, slavery 
should never be permitted. This provision of law is the " Missouri 
Compromise." In excluding slavery north of the line, the same lan- 
guage is employed as in the ordinance of 1787. It directly apphed to 
Iowa, Minnesota, and to the present bone of contention, Kansas and 
Nebraska. Whether there should or should not be slavery south of 
that line, nothing was said in the law. But Arkansas constituted 
the principal remaining part south of the line ; and it has since been 
admitted as a slave State, without serious controversy. More re- 
cently, Iowa, north of the line, came in as a free State without con- 
troversy. Still later, Minnesota, north of the line, had a territorial 
organization without controversy. Texas, principally south of the 
line, and west of Arkansas, though originally within the purchase 
from France, had, in 1819, been traded off to Spain in our treaty for 
the acquisition of Florida. It had thus become a part of Mexico. 
Mexico revolutionized and became independent of Spain. American 
citizens began settling rapidly with their slaves in the southern part 
of Texas. Soon they revolutionized against Mexico, and established 
an independent government of their own, adopting a constitution 
with slavery, strongly resembling the constitutions of our slave 
States. By still another rapid move, Texas, claiming a boundary 
much further west than when we parted with her in 1819, was 
brought back to the United States, and admitted into the Union as 
a slave State. Then there was little or no settlement in the nor- 
thern part of Texas, a considerable portion of which lay north of the 
Missouri line ; and in the resolutions admitting her into the Union, 
the Missouri restriction was expressly extended westward across her 
territory. This was in 1845, only nine years ago. 

Thus originated the Missouri Compromise ; and thus has it been 
respected down to 1845. And even four years later, in 1849, our 
distinguished senator, in a public address, held the following lan- 
guage in relation to it: 

The Missouri Compromise has been in practical operation for about a 
quarter of a century, and has received the sanction and approbation of men 
of all parties in every section of the Union. It has allayed all sectional 
jealousies and irritations growing out of this vexed question, and harmon- 
ized and trauqmlized the whole country. It has given to Henry Clay, as 
its prominent champion, the proud sobxiquet of the " Great Pacificator," 
and by that title, and for that service, his political friends had repeatedly 
appealed to the people to raUy under his standard as a presidential candi- 
date, as the man who had exhibited the patriotism and power to suppress 
an unholy and treasonable agitation, and preserve the Union. He was not 
aware that any man or any party, from any section of the Union, had ever 
urged as an objection to Mr. Clay that he was the great champion of the 
Missouri Compromise. On the contrary, the effort was made by the oppo- 
nents of Mr. Clay to prove that he was not entitled to the exclusive merit 
of that great patriotic measure ; and that the honor was equally due to 
others, as well as to him, for securing its adoption — that it had its origin in 
the hearts of all patriotic men, who desired to presex-ve and perpetuate the 



184 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

blessings of our glorious Union — an origin aMu to that of the Constitution 
of the United States, conceived in the same spirit of fraternal affection, and 
calculated to remove forever the only danger which seemed to threaten, at 
some distant day, to sever the social bond of union. AU the evidences of 
pubUc opinion at that day seemed to indicate that this Compromise had 
been canonized in the hearts of the American people, as a sacred thing 
which no mthless hand would ever be reckless enough to disturb. 

I do not read this extract to involve Judge Douglas in an incon- 
sistency. If he afterward thought he had been wrong, it was right 
for him to change. I bring this forward merely to show the high 
estimate placed on the Missouri Compromise by all parties up to so 
late as the year 1849. 

But going back a little in point of time. Our war with Mexico 
broke out in 1846. "When Congress was about adjourning that ses- 
sion, President Polk asked them to place two millions of dollars un- 
der his control, to be used by him in the recess, if found practicable 
and expedient, in negotiating a treaty of peace with Mexico, and ac- 
quiring some part of her territory. A bill was duly gotten up for 
the purpose, and was progressing swimmingly in the House of Rep- 
resentatives, when a member by the name of David Wilmot, a Dem- 
ocrat from Pennsylvania, moved as an amendment, " Provided, that 
in any territory thus acquired there shall never be slavery." 

This is the origin of the far-famed Wilmot proviso. It created a 
great flutter; but it stuck like wax, was voted into the bill, and 
the bill passed with it through the House. The Senate, however, 
adjourned without final action on it, and so both appropriation and 
proviso were lost for the time. The war continued, and at the next 
session the President renewed his request for the appropriation, en- 
larging the amount, I think, to three millions. Again came the pro- 
viso, and defeated the measure. Congress adjourned again, and the 
war went on. In December, 1847, the new Congress assembled. I 
was in the lower House that term. The Wilmot proviso, or the 
principle of it, was constantly coming up in some shape or other, 
and I think I may venture to say I voted for it at least forty times 
during the short time I was there. The Senate, however, held it in 
check, and it never became a law. In the spring of 1848 a treaty of 
peace was made with Mexico, by which we obtained that portion of 
her country which now constitutes the Territories of New Mexico 
and Utah, and the present State of California. By this treaty the 
Wilmot proviso was defeated, in so far as it was intended to be a con- 
dition of the acquisition of territory. Its friends, however, were stUl 
determined to find some way to restrain slavery from getting into 
the new country. This new acquisition lay directly west of our old 
purchase from France, and extended west to the Pacific Ocean, and 
was so situated that if the Missouri line should be extended straight 
west, the new country would be divided by such extended line, leav- 
ing some north and some south of it. On Judge Douglas's motion, 
a bill, or provision of a bill, passed the Senate to so extend the Mis- 
souri line. The proviso men in the House, including myself, voted 
it down, because, by implication, it gave up the southern part to 
slavery, while we were bent on having it all free. 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 185 

In the fall of 1848 the gold-mines were discovered in California. 
This attracted people to it with unprecedented rapidity, so that on, 
or soon after, the meeting of the new Congress in December, 1849, 
she already had a population of nearly a hundred thousand, had 
called a convention, formed a State Constitution excluding slavery, 
and was knocking for admission into the Union. The proviso men, 
of course, were for letting her in, but the Senate, always true to the 
other side, would not consent to her admission, and there California 
stood, kept out of the Union because she would not let slavery into 
her borders. Under all the circumstances, perhaps, this was not 
wrong. There were other points of dispute connected with the gen- 
eral question of slavery, which equally needed adjustment. The 
South clamored for a more efficient fugitive-slave law. The North 
clamored for the abolition of a pecidiar species of slave-trade in the 
District of Columbia, in connection with which, in view from the 
windows of the Capitol, a sort of negro livery-stable, where droves 
of negroes were collected, temporarily kept, and finally taken to 
Southern markets, precisely like droves of horses, had been openly 
maintained for fifty years. Utah and New Mexico needed territorial 
governments; and whether slavery should or should not be pro- 
hibited within them was another question. The indefinite western 
boundary of Texas was to be settled. She was a slave State, and 
consequently the farther west the slavery men could push her boun- 
dary, the more slave country they secured ; and the farther east the 
slavery opponents could thrust the boundary back, the less slave 
ground was secured. Thus this was just as clearly a slavery ques- 
tion as any of the others. 

These points aU needed adjustment, and they were held up, per- 
haps wisely, to make them help adjust one another. The Union 
now, as in 1820, was thought to be in danger, and devotion to the 
Union rightfully inclined men to yield somewhat in points, M^here 
nothing else could have so inclined them. A compromise was 
finally effected. The South got their new fugitive-slave law, and the 
North got California (by far the best part of our acquisition from 
Mexico) as a free State. The South got a provision that New Mexico 
and Utah, when admitted as States, may come in with or without 
slavery as they may then choose ; and the North got the slave-trade 
abolished in the District of Columbia. The North got the western 
boundary of Texas thrown farther back eastward than the South 
desired ; but, in turn, they gave Texas ten millions of dollars with 
which to pay her old debts. This is the compromise of 1850. 

Preceding the presidential election of 1852, each of the great 
political parties. Democrats and Whigs, met in convention and 
adopted resolutions indorsing the compromise of '50, as a "final- 
ity," a final settlement, so far as these parties could make it so, of all 
slavery agitation. Previous to this, in 1851, the Illinois legislature 
had indorsed it. 

During this long period of time, Nebraska had remained substan- 
tially an uninhabited country, but now emigration to and settle- 
ment within it began to take place. It is about one third as large 
as the present United States, and its importance, so long overlooked, 



186 ADDKESSES AND LETTEBS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

begins to come into view. The restriction of slavery by the Mis- 
souri Compromise directly applies to it — in fact was first made, and 
has since been maintained, expressly for it. In 1853, a bill to give 
it a territorial government passed the House of Representatives, 
and, in the hands of Judge Douglas, failed of passing only for want 
of time. This bill contained no repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 
Indeed, when it was assailed because it did not contain such repeal, 
Judge Douglas defended it in its existing form. On January 4, 
1854, Judge Douglas introduces a new bill to give Nebraska terri- 
torial government. He accompanies this bill with a report, in which 
last he expressly recommends that the Missouri Compromise shall 
neither be affirmed nor repealed. Before long the bill is so modified 
as to make two territories instead of one, calling the southern one 
Kansas. 

Also, about a month after the introduction of the bill, on the 
judge's own motion it is so amended as to declare the Missouri 
Compromise inoperative and void; and, substantially, that the peo- 
ple who go and settle there may establish slavery, or exclude it, as 
they may see fit. In this shape the bill passed both branches of 
Congress and became a law. 

This is the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The foregoing 
history may not be precisely accurate in every particular, but I am 
sure it is sufficiently so for all the use I shall attempt to make of it, 
and in it we have before us the chief material enabling us to judge 
correctly whether the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is right 
or wrong. I think, and shall try to show, that it is wrong — wrong in 
its direct effect, letting slavery into Kansas and Nebraska, and 
wrong in its prospective principle, allowing it to spread to every 
other part of the wide world where men can be found inclined to 
take it. 

This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert real zeal, 
for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the 
monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives 
our republican example of its just influence in the world ; enables 
the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypo- 
crites ; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity ; 
and especially because it forces so many good men among ourselves 
into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil lib- 
erty, criticizing the Declaration of Independence, and insisting that 
there is no right principle of action but self-interest. 

Before proceeding let me say that I think I have no prejudice 
against the Southern people. They are just what we would be in 
their situation. If slavery did not now exist among them, they 
would not introduce it. If it did now exist among us, we should not 
instantly give it up. This I believe of the masses North and South. 
Doubtless there are individuals on both sides who would not hold 
slaves under any circumstances, and others who would gladly intro- 
duce slavery anew if it were out of existence. We know that some 
Southern men do free their slaves, go North and become tip-top 
Abolitionists, while some Northern ones go South and become most 
cruel slave-masters. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 187 

When Southern people tell us they are no more responsible for the 
origin of slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is 
said that the institution exists, and that it is very difficult to get rid 
of it in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the 
saying. I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should 
not know how to do myself. If all earthly power were given me, I 
should not know what to do as to the existing institution. My first 
impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia, to 
their own native laud. But a moment's reflection would convince 
me that whatever of high hope (as I think there is) there may be in 
this in the long run, its sudden execution is impossible. If they were 
all landed there in a day, they would all perish in the next ten days; 
and there are not surplus shipping and surplus money enough to 
carry them there in many times ten days. What then ? Free them 
all, and keep them among us as underlings? Is it quite certain that 
this betters their condition ? I think I would not hold one in slavery 
at any rate, yet the point is not clear enough for me to denounce 
people upon. What next"? Free them, and make them politically 
and socially our equals. My own feelings will not admit of this, and 
if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of whites 
will not. Whether this feeling accords with justice and sound judg- 
ment is not the sole question, if indeed it is any part of it. A 
universal feeling, whether well or ill founded, cannot be safely disre- 
garded. We cannot then make them equals. It does seem to me 
that systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted, but for their 
tardiness in this I will not undertake to judge our brethren of the 
South. 

When they remind us of their constitutional rights, I acknowledge 
them — not grudgingly, but fully and fairly; and I would give them 
any legislation for the reclaiming of their fugitives which should 
not in its stringency be more likely to carry a free man into slavery 
than our ordinary criminal laws are to hang an innocent one. 

But all this, to my judgment, furnishes no more excuse for per- 
mitting slavery to go into our own free territory than it would for 
reviving the African slave-trade by law. The law which forbids the 
bringing of slaves from Africa, and that which has so long forbidden 
the taking of them into Nebraska, can hardly be distinguished on 
any moral principle, and the repeal of the former could find quite as 
plausible excuses as that of the latter. 

The arguments by which the repeal of the Missouri Compromise is 
sought to be justified are these: First. That the Nebraska country 
needed a territorial government. Second. That in various ways the 
public had repudiated that compromise and demanded the repeal, 
and therefore should not now complain of it. And, lastly, That the 
repeal establishes a principle which is intrinsically right. 

I will attempt an answer to each of them in its turn. First, then. 
If that country was in need of a territorial organization, could it 
not have had it as well without as with a repeal? Iowa and Min- 
nesota, to both of which the Missouri restriction applied, had, with- 
out its repeal, each in succession, territorial organizations. And 
even the year before, a biU for Nebraska itself was within an ace of 



188 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

passing without the repealing clause, and this in the hands of the 
same men who are now the champions of repeal. Why no necessity 
then for rej)eal ? But still later, when this very bill was first brought 
in, it contained no repeal. But, say they, because the people had 
demanded, or rather commanded, the repeal, the repeal was to ac- 
company the organization whenever that should occur. 

Now, I deny that the public ever demanded any such thing — ever 
repudiated the Missouri Compromise, ever commanded its repeal. I 
deny it, and call for the proof. It is not contended, I believe, that 
any such command has ever been given in express terms. It is only 
said that it was done in principle. The support of the Wilmot 
proviso is the first fact mentioned to prove that the Missouri restric- 
tion was repudiated in principle, and the second is the refusal to extend 
the Missouri line over the country acquii'ed from Mexico. These 
are near enough alike to be treated together. The one was to exclude 
the chances of slavery from the whole new acquisition by the lump, 
and the other was to reject a division of it, by which one half was 
to be given up to those chances. Now, whether this was a repudia- 
tion of the Missoui'i line in principle depends upon whether the 
Missouri law contained any principle requiring the line to be ex- 
tended over the country acquired from Mexico. I contend it did 
not. I insist that it contained no general principle, but that it was, 
in every sense, specific. That its terms limit it to the country pur- 
chased from France is undenied and undeniable. It could have no 
principle beyond the intention of those who made it. They did not 
intend to extend the line to country which they did not own. If 
they intended to extend it in the event of acquiring additional terri- 
tory, why did they not say so ? It was just as easy to say that " in 
aU the country west of the Mississippi which we now own, or may 
hereafter acquire, there shaU never be slavery," as to say what they 
did say ; and they would have said it if they had meant it. An in- 
tention to extend the law is not only not mentioned in the law, but 
is not mentioned in any contemporaneous history. Both the law 
itself, and the history of the times, are a blank as to any principle of 
extension ; and by neither the known rules of construing statutes 
and contracts, nor by common sense, can any such principle be 
inferred. 

Another fact showing the specific character of the Missouri law — 
showing that it intended no more than it expressed, showing that 
the line was not intended as a universal dividing line between free 
and slave territory, present and prospective, north of which slavery 
could never go — is the fact that by that very law Missouri came in 
as a slave State, north of the line. If that law contained any pro- 
spective principle, the whole law must be looked to in order to ascer- 
tain what the principle was. And by this rule the South could fairly 
contend that inasmuch as they got one slave State north of the line 
at the inception of the law, they have the right to have another 
given them north of it occasionally, now and then, in the indefinite 
westward extension of the line. This demonstrates the absurdity 
of attempting to deduce a prospective principle from the Missouri 
Compromise line. 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 189 

Wheu we voted for the Wilmot proviso we were voting to keep 
slavery out of the whole Mexican acquisition, and little did we think 
we were thereby voting to let it into Nebraska, lying several hun- 
dred miles distant. When we voted against extending the Missouri 
line, little did we think we were voting to destroy the old line, then 
of near thirty years' standing. 

To argue that we thus repudiated the Missouri Compromise is no 
less absurd than it would be to argue that because we have so far 
forborne to acquire Cuba, we have thereby, in principle, repudiated 
our former acquisitions and determined to throw them out of the 
Union. No less absurd than it would be to say that because I may 
have refused to build an addition to my house, I thereby have decided 
to destroy the existing house ! And if I catch you setting fire to my 
house, you will turn upon me and say I instructed you to do it! 

The most conclusive argument, however, that while for the Wil- 
mot proviso, and while voting against the extension of the Missouri 
line, we never thought of disturbing the original Missouri Compro- 
mise, is found in the fact that there was then, and still is, an unor- 
ganized tract of fine country, nearly as large as the State of Missouri, 
lying immediately west of Arkansas and south of the Missouri 
Compromise line, and that we never attempted to prohibit slavery as 
to it. I wish particular attention to this. It adjoins the original Slis- 
souri Compromise line by its northern boundary, and consequently 
is part of the country into which by implication slavery was per- 
mitted to go by that compromise. There it has lain open ever 
since, and there it still lies, and yet no effort has been made at any 
time to wrest it from the South. In all our struggles to prohibit 
slavery within our Mexican acquisitions, we never so much as lifted 
a finger to prohibit it as to this tract. Is not this entirely conclusive 
that at all times we have held the Missouri Compromise as a sacred 
thing, even when against ourselves as well as when for us? 

Senator Douglas sometimes says the Missouri line itself was in 
principle only an extension of the line of the ordinance of '87 — 
that is to say, an extension of the Ohio River. I think this is weak 
enough on its face. I will remark, however, that, as a glance at the 
map will show, the Missouri line is along way farther south than the 
Ohio, and that if our senator in proposing his extension had stuck 
to the principle of jogging southward, perhaps it might not have 
been voted down so readily. 

But next it is said that the compromises of '50, and the ratification 
of them by both political parties in '52, established a new principle 
which required the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. This again 
I deny. I deny it, and demand the proof. I have already stated 
fully what the compromises of '50 are. That particular part of 
those measures from which the virtual repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise is sought to be inferred (for it is admitted they contain 
nothing about it in express terms) is the provision in the Utah and 
New Mexico laws which permits them when they seek admission 
into the Union as States to come in with or without slavery, as they 
shall then see fit. Now I insist this provision was made for Utah 
and New Mexico, and for no other place whatever. It had no more 



190 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

direct reference to Nebraska than it had to the territories of the 
moon. But, say they, it had reference to Nebraska in principle. 
Let us see. The North consented to this provision, not because they 
considered it right in itself, but because they were compensated — 
paid for it. 

They at the same time got California into the Union as a free State. 
This was far the best part of all they had struggled for by the Wil- 
mot proviso. They also got the area of slavery somewhat narrowed 
in the settlement of the boundary of Texas. Also they got the slave- 
trade abolished in the District of Columbia. 

For all these desirable objects the North could afford to yield 
something; and they did yield to the South the Utah and New 
Mexico provision. I do not mean that the whole North, or even a 
majority, yielded, when the law passed ; but enough yielded, when 
adaed to the vote of the South, to carry the measure. Nor can it 
be pretended that the principle of this arrangement requires us to 
permit the same provision to be applied to Nebraska, without any 
equivalent at all. Give us another free State ; press the boundary of 
Texas still further back ; give us another step towai'd the destruction 
of slavery in the District, and you present us a similar case. But 
ask us not to repeat, for nothing, what you paid for in the first in- 
stance. If you wish the thing again, pay again. That is the prin- 
ciple of the compromises of '50, if, indeed, they had any principles 
beyond their specific terms — it was the system of equivalents. 

Again, if Congress, at that time, intended that all future Territor- 
ies should, when admitted as States, come in with or without slavery, 
at their own option, why did it not say so? With such a univer- 
sal provision, all know the bills could not have passed. Did they, 
then — could they — establish a principle contrary to their own inten- 
tion ■? Still further, if they intended to establish the principle that, 
whenever Congress had control, it should be left to the people to do 
as they thought fit with slavery, why did they not authorize the 
people of the District of Columbia, at their option, to abolish slaverj-^ 
w^ithin their limits 1 

1 personally know that this has not been left undone because it 
was unthought of. It was frequently spoken of by members of 
Congress, and by citizens of Washington, six years ago; and I heard 
no one express a doubt that a system of gradual emancipation, with 
compensation to owners, would meet the approbation of a large ma- 
jority of the white people of the District. But without the action of 
Congress they could say nothing; and Congress said ''No." In the 
measures of 1850, Congress had the subject of slavery in the District 
expressly on hand. If they were then establishing the principle of 
allowing the people to do as they please with slavery, why did they 
not apply the principle to that people ? 

Again, it is claimed that by the resolutions of the Illinois legis- 
lature, passed in 1851, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was 
demanded. This I deny also. Whatever may be worked out by a 
criticism of the language of those resolutions, the people have never 
understood them as being any more than an indorsement of the 
compromises of 1850, and a release of our senators from voting for 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 191 

the "Wilmot proviso. The whole people are liviug witnesses that 
this only was their view. Finally, it is asked, *' If we did not mean 
to apply the Utah and New Mexico provision to all future territories, 
what did we mean when we, in 1852, indorsed the compromises of 
1850?" 

For myself I can answer this question most easily. I meant not 
to ask a repeal or modification of the fugitive-slave law. I meant 
not to ask for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. 
I meant not to resist the admission of Utah and New Mexico, even 
should they ask to come in as slave States. I meant nothing about 
additional Territories, because, as I understood, we then had no Ter- 
ritory whose character as to slavery was not already settled. As to 
Nebraska, I regarded its character as being fixed by the Missouri 
Compromise for thirty years — as unalterably fixed as that of my 
own home in Illinois. As to new acquisitions, I said, " Sufficient 
unto the day is the evil thereof." When we make new acquisitions, 
we will, as heretofore, try to manage them somehow. That is my 
answer ; that is what I meant and said ; and I appeal to the people 
to say each for himself, whether that is not also the universal mean- 
ing of the free States. 

And now, in turn, let me ask a few questions. If, by any or all 
these matters, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was com- 
manded, why was not the command sooner obeyed ? Why was the 
repeal omitted in the Nebraska bill of 1853 ? Why was it omitted 
in the original bill of 1854 ? Why in the accompaujing report was 
such a repeal characterized as a departure from the course pursued 
in 1850 ? and its continued omission recommended ? 

I am aware Judge Douglas now argues that the subsequent ex- 
press repeal is no substantial alteration of the bill. This argument 
seems wonderful to me. It is as if one should argue that white and 
black are not different. He admits, however, that there is a literal 
change in the bill, and that he made the change in deference to other 
senators who would not support the bill without. This proves that 
those other senators thought the change a substantial one, and that 
the judge thought theii* opinions worth deferring to. His own opin- 
ions, therefore, seem not to rest on a very firm basis, even in his own 
mind ; and I suppose the world believes, and will continue to believe, 
that precisely on the substance of that change this whole agitation 
has arisen. 

I conclude, then, that the public never demanded the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise. 

I now come to consider whether the appeal, with its avowed prin- 
ciples, is intrinsically right. I insist that it is not. Take the par- 
ticular case. A controversy had arisen between the advocates and 
opponents of slavery, in relation to its establishment within the 
country we had purchased of France. The southern, and then best, 
part of the purchase was already in as a slave State. The contro- 
versy was settled by also letting Missouri in as a slave State ; but 
with the agreement that within all the remaining part of the pur- 
chase, north of a certain line, there should never be slavery. As to 
what was to be done with the remaining part south of the line, 



192 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

nothing was said ; bnt perhaps the fair implication was, it should 
come in with slavery if it should so choose. The southern part, ex- 
cept a i)ortion heretofore mentioned, afterward did come in with 
slavery, as the State of Arkansas. All these many years, since 1820, 
the northern part had remained a wilderness. At length settle- 
ments began in it also. In due course Iowa came in as a free State, 
and Minnesota was given a territorial government, without remov- 
ing the slavery restriction. Finally, the sole remaining part north 
of the line — Kansas and Nebraska — was to be oi*ganized; and it is 
proposed, and carried, to blot out the old dividing line of thirty-four 
years' standing, and to open the whole of that country to the intro- 
duction of slavery. Now this, to my mind, is manifestly unjust. 
After an angry and dangerous controversy, the parties made friends 
by dividing the bone of contention. The one party first appropri- 
ates her own share, beyond all power to be disturbed in the posses- 
sion of it, and then seizes the share of the other party. It is as if 
two starving men had divided their only loaf ; the one had hastily 
swallowed his half, and then grabbed the other's half just as he was 
putting it to his mouth. 

Let me here drop the main argument, to notice what I consider 
rather an inferior matter. It is argued that slavery will not go to 
Kansas and Nebraska, in any event. This is a palliation, a lullaby. 
I have some hope that it will not ; but let us not be too confident. 
As to climate, a glance at the map shows that there are five slave 
States — Delaware, Mary land, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, and 
also the District of Columbia, all north of the Missouri Compromise 
line. The census returns of 1850 show that within these there are 
eight hundred and sixty-seven thousand two hundred and seventy- 
six slaves, being more than one fourth of all the slaves in the 
nation. 

It is not climate then, that will keep slavery out of these Terri- 
tories. Is there anything in the pecuUar nature of the country? 
Missouri adjoins these Territories by her entire western boundarj', 
and slavery is already within every one of her western counties. I 
have even heard it said that there are more slaves in proportion to 
whites in the northwestern county of Missouri, than within any 
other county in the State. Slavery pressed entirely up to the old 
western boundary of the State, and when rather recently a part of 
that boundaiy at the northwest was moved out a little farther west, 
slavery followed on quite up to the new line. Now when the re- 
striction is removed, what is to prevent it from going still farther ? 
Climate will not, no peculiarity of the country will, nothing in na- 
ture will. Will the disposition of the people prevent it I Those 
nearest the scene are all in favor of the extension. The Yankees 
who are opposed to it may be most numerous; but, in military 
phrase, the battle-field is too far from theii- base of operations. 

But it is said, there now is no law in Nebraska on the subject of 
slavery, and that, in such case, taking a slave there operates his 
freedom. That is good book-law, but is not the rule of actual prac- 
tice. Wherever slavery is it has been first introduced without law. 
The oldest laws we find concerning it are not laws introducing it, but 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEHS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 193 

regulatiuff it as an already existing thing. A white man takes his 
slave to Nebraska now. Who will inform the negro that he is free ? 
Who will take him before court to test the question of his freedom ? 
In ignorance of his legal emancipation he is kept chopping, splitting, 
and plowing. Others are brought, and move on in the same track. 
At last, if ever the time for voting comes on the question of slavery, 
the institution already, in fact, exists in the country, and cannot 
well be removed. The fact of its presence, and the difficulty of its 
removal, will carry the vote in its favor. Keep it out until a vote is 
taken, and a vote in favor of it cannot be got in any population 
of forty thousand on earth, who have been drawn together by the 
ordinary motives of emigration and settlement. To get slaves into 
the Territory simultaneously with the whites in the incipient stages 
of settlement is the precise stake played for and won in this Ne- 
braska measure. 

The question is asked us : " If slaves will go in notwithstanding 
the general principle of law liberates them, why would they not 
equally go in against positive statute law — go in, even if the Mis- 
souri restriction were maintained ! " I answer, because it takes a 
much bolder man to venture in with his property in the latter case 
than in the former; because the positive congressional enactment 
is known to and respected by aU, or nearly all, whereas the negative 
principle that no law is free law is not much known except among 
lawyers. We have some experience of this practical difference. In 
spite of the ordinance of '87, a few negroes were brought into Illi- 
nois, and held in a state of quasi- slavery, not enough, however, to 
carry a vote of the people in favor of the institution when they came 
to form a constitution. But into the adjoining Missouri country, 
where there was no ordinance of '87 — was no restriction, they 
were carried ten times, nay, a hundred times, as fast, and actually 
made a slave State. This is fact — naked fact. 

Another lullaby argument is that taking slaves to new countries 
does not increase their number, does not make any one slave who 
would otherwise be free. There is some truth in this, and I am glad 
of it ; but it is not wholly true. The African slave-trade is not yet 
effectually suppressed ; and if we make a reasonable deduction for 
the white people among us who are foreigners and the descendants 
of foreigners arriving here since 1808, we shall find the increase of 
the black population outrunning that of the white to an extent un- 
accountable, except by supposing that some of them, too, have been 
coming from Africa. If this be so, the opening of new countries to 
the institution increases the demand for and augments the price of 
slaves, and so does, in fact, make slaves of freemen, by causing them 
to be brought from Africa and sold into bondage. 

But however this may be, we know the opening of new countries 
to slavery tends to the perpetuation of the institution, and so does 
keep men in slavery who would otherwise be free. This result we 
do not feel like favoring, and we are under no legal obligation to 
suppress our feelings in this respect. 

Equal justice to the South, it is said, requires us to consent to 
the extension of slavery to new countries. That is to say, inasmuch 
Vol. I.— 13. 



194 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

as you do not object to my taking my hog to Nebraska, therefore I 
must not object to you taking your slave. Now, I admit that this 
is perfectly logical, if there is no difference between hogs and 
negroes. But while you thus require me to deny the humanity of 
the negro, I wish to ask whether you of the South, yourselves, have 
ever been willing to do as much ? It is kindly provided that of all 
those who come into the world only a small percentage are natural 
tyrants. That percentage is no larger in the slave States than in 
the free. The great majority South, as well as North, have human 
sympathies, of which they can no more divest themselves than 
they can of their sensibility to physical pain. These sympathies in 
the bosoms of the Southern people manifest, in many ways, their 
sense of the wrong of slavery, and their consciousness that, after 
all, there is humanity in the negro. If they deny this, let me address 
them a few plain questions. In 1820 you joined the North, almost 
unanimously^ in declaring the African slave-trade piracy, and in 
annexing to it the punishment of death. Why did you do this ? If 
you did not feel that it was wrong, why did you join in providing 
that men should be hung for it ? The practice was no more than 
bringing wild negroes from Africa to such as would buy them. 
But you never thought of hanging men for catching and selling 
wild horses, wild buffaloes, or wUd bears. 

Again, you have among you a sneaking individual of the class 
of native tyrants known as the " Slave-Dealer." He watches your 
necessities, and crawls up to buy your slave, at a speculating price. 
If you cannot help it, you sell to him ; but if you can help it, you 
drive him from your door. You despise him utterly. You do not 
recognize him as a friend, or even as an honest man. Your children 
must not play with his; they may rollick freely with the little ne- 
groes, but not with the slave-dealer's children. If you are obliged 
to deal with him, you try to get through the job without so much 
as touching him. It is common with you to join hands with the 
men you meet, but with the slave-dealer you avoid the ceremony — 
instinctively shrinking from the snaky contact. K he grows rich 
and retires from business, you stiU remember him, and still keep up 
the ban of non-intercourse upon him and his family. Now why is this! 
You do not so treat the man who deals in corn, cotton, or tobacco. 

And yet again. There are in the United States and Territories, in- 
cluding the District of Columbia, 433,643 free blacks. At five hun- 
dred dollars per head they are worth over two hundred millions of 
dollars. How comes this vast amount of property to be running 
about without owners ? We do not see free horses or free cattle run- 
ning at large. How is this? All these free blacks are the descen- 
dants of slaves, or have been slaves themselves ; and they would be 
slaves now but for something which has operated on their white 
owners, inducing them at vast pecuniary sacrifice to liberate them. 
What is that something? Is there any mistaking it? In all these 
cases it is your sense of justice and human sympathy continually tell- 
ing you that the poor negro has some natural right to himself — that 
those who deny it and make mere merchandise of him deserve kick- 
ings, contempt, and death. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 195 

And now why will you ask us to deny the humanity of the slave, 
and estimate him as only the equal of the hog ? Why ask us to do 
what you will not do yourselves? Why ask us to do for nothing 
what two hundred millions of dollars could not induce you to do ? 

But one great argument in support of the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise is still to come. That argument is " the sacred right of 
self-government." It seems our distinguished senator has found 
great difficulty in getting his antagonists, even in the Senate, to meet 
him fairly on this argument. Some poet has said: 

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. 

At the hazard of being thought one of the fools of this quotation, 
1 meet that argument — I rush in — I take that bull by the horns. I 
trust I understand and truly estimate the right of self-government. 
My faith in the proposition that each man should do precisely as he 
pleases with all which is exclusively his own lies at the foundation 
of the sense of justice there is in me. I extend the principle to com- 
munities of men as well as to individuals. I so extend it because it 
is politically wise, as well as naturally just: politically wise in saving 
us from broils about matters which do not concern us. Here, or at 
Washington, I would not trouble myself with the oyster laws of Vir- 
ginia, or the cranberry laws of Indiana. The doctrine of self-gov- 
ernment is right, — absolutely and eternally right, — but it has no 
just application as here attempted. Or perhaps I should rather say 
that whether it has such application depends upon whether a negro 
is not or is a man. If he is not a man, in that case he who is a man 
may as a matter of self-government do just what he pleases with him. 
But if the negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total destruction 
of self-government to say that he too shall not govern himself? 
When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but 
when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more 
than seK-government — that is despotism. If the negro is a man, 
why then my ancient faith teaches me that " all men are created 
equal," and that there can be no moral right in connection with 
one man's making a slave of another. 

Judge Douglas frequently, with bitter irony and sarcasm, para- 
phrases our argument by sajdng : " The white people of Nebraska 
are good enough to govern themselves, but they are not good enough 
to govern a few miserable negroes ! " 

Well! I doubt not that the people of Nebraska are and will con- 
tinue to be as good as the average of people elsewhere. I do not say 
the contrary. What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern 
another man without that other's consent. I say this is the leading 
principle, the sheet-anchor of American republicanism. Our Decla- 
ration of Independence says : 

We hold these truths to be self-evident : That aU men are created equal ; 
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inahenable rights ; that 
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure 
these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just 

POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED. 



196 ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OF ABKAHAJ^I LINCOLN 

I have quoted so much at this time merely to show that, accord- 
ing to our ancient faith, the just powers of governments are derived 
from the consent of the governed. Now the relation of master and 
slave is pro tanto a total violation of this principle. The master not 
only governs the slave without his consent, but he governs him by 
a set of rules altogether different from those which he prescribes 
for himself. Allow all the governed an equal voice in the govern- 
ment, and that, and that only, is seK-government. 

Let it not be said I am contending for the establishment of polit- 
ical and social equality between the whites and blacks. I have 
alread}' said the contrary. I am not combating the argument of 
necessity, arising from the fact that the blacks are already among 
us; but I am combating what is set up as moral argument for 
allowing them to be taken where they have never yet been — argu- 
ing against the extension of a bad thing, which, where it ah-eady 
exists, we must of necessity manage as we best can. 

In support of his application of the doctrine of self-government, 
Senator Douglas has sought to bring to his aid the opinions and 
examples of our Revolutionary fathers. I am glad he has done this. 
I love the sentiments of those old-time men, and shall be most 
happy to abide by their opinions. He shows us that when it was in 
contemplation for the colonies to break off from Great Britain, and 
set up a new government for themselves, several of the States in- 
structed their delegates to go for the measure, provided each State 
should be allowed to regulate its domestic concerns in its own way. 
I do not quote; but this in substance. This was right; I see nothing 
objectionable in it. I also think it probable that it had some 
reference to the existence of slavery among them. I will not deny 
that it had. But had it any reference to the carrying of slavery 
into new countries ? That is the question, and we will let the 
fathers themselves answer it. 

This same generation of men, and mostly the same individuals of 
the generation who declared this principle, who declared indepen- 
dence, who fought the war of the Revolution through, who afterward 
made the Constitution under which we still live — these same men 
passed the ordinance of '87, declaring that slavery should never go 
to the Northwest Territory. I have no doubt Judge Douglas thinks 
they were very inconsistent in this. It is a question of discrimina- 
tion between them and him. But there is not an inch of ground 
left for his claiming that their opinions, their example, their author- 
ity, are on his side in the controversy. 

Again, is not Nebraska, while a Territory, a part of us? Do we 
not own the country? And if we surrender the control of it, do we 
not surrender the right of self-government? It is part of our- 
selves. If you say we shall not control it, because it is only part, 
the same is time of every other part : and when all the parts are 
gone, what has become of the whole? What is then left of us? 
What use for the General Government, when there is nothing left 
for it to govern ? 

But you say this question should be left to the people of Ne- 
braska, because they are more particularly interested. If this be 



ADDBESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABE AH AM LINCOLN 197 

the rule, you must leave it to each individual to say for himself 
whether he -will have slaves. What better moral right have thirty- 
one citizens of Nebraska to say that the thirtj'-second shall not hold 
slaves than the people of the thirty-one States have to say that 
slavery shall not go into the thirty -second State at all ? 

But if it is a sacred right for the people of Nebraska to take and 
hold slaves there, it is equally their sacred right to buy them where 
they can buy them cheapest ; and that, undoubtedly, will be on the 
coast of Africa, provided you will consent not to hang them for 
going there to buy them. You must remove this restriction, too, 
from the sacred right of self-government. I am aware, you say, 
tliat taking slaves from the States to Nebraska does not make slaves 
of freemen ; but the African slave-trader can say just as much. He 
does not catch free negroes and bring them here. He finds them 
already slaves in the hands of their black captors, and he honestly 
buys them at the rate of a red cotton handkerchief a head. This is 
very cheap, and it is a great abridgment of the sacred right of self- 
government to hang men for engaging in this profitable ti'ade. 

Another important objection to this application of the right of 
self-government is that it enables the fii-st few to deprive the suc- 
ceeding many of a free exercise of the right of self-government. 
The first few may get slavery in, and the subsequent many cannot 
easily get it out. How common is the remark now in the slave 
States, " If we were only clear of our slaves, how much better it 
would be for us." They are actually deprived of the privilege of 
governing themselves as they would, by the action of a very few in 
the beginning. The same thing was true of the whole nation at 
the time our Constitution was formed. 

Whether slavery shall go into Nebraska, or other new Territories, 
is not a matter of exclusive concern to the people who may go there. 
The whole nation is interested that the best use shall be made of 
these Territories. We want them for homes of free white people. 
This they cannot be, to any considerable extent, if slavery shall be 
planted within them. Slave States are places for poor white people 
to remove from, not to remove to. New free States are the places 
for poor people to go to, and better their condition. For this use 
the nation needs these Territories. 

Still further: there are constitutional relations between the slave 
and free States which are degrading to the latter. We are under 
legal obligations to catch and return their runaway slaves to them : 
a sort of dirty, disagreeable job, which, I believe, as a general rule, 
the slaveholders will not perform for one another. Then again, in 
the control of the government — the management of the partnership 
affairs — they have greatlj^ the advantage of us. By the Constitu- 
tion each State has two senators, each has a number of repi-esenta- 
tives in proportion to the number of its people, and each has a 
number of presidential electors equal to the whole number of its 
senators and representatives together. But in ascertaining the num- 
ber of the people for this purpose, five slaves are counted as being 
equal to three whites. The slaves do not vote ; they are only counted 
and so used as to swell the influence of the white people's votes. 



198 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The practical effect of this is more aptly shown by a comparison of 
the States of South Carolina and Maine. South Carolina has six 
representatives, and so has Maine ; South Carolina has eight presi- 
dential electors, and so has Maine. This is precise equahty so far ; 
and of course they are equal in senators, each having two. Thus in 
the control of the government the two States are equals precisely. 
But how are they in the number of their white people ? Maine has 
581,813, while South Carolina has 274,567; Maine has twice as many 
as South Carolina, and 32,679 over. Thus, each white man in South 
Carolina is more than the double of any man in Maine. This is all 
because South Carolina, besides her free people, has 384,984 slaves. 
The South Carolinian has precisely the same advantage oyer the white 
man in every other free State as well as in Maine. He is more than 
the double of any one of us in this crowd. The same advantage, 
but not to the same extent, is held by all the citizens of the slave 
States over those of the free ; and it is an absolute truth, without 
an exception, that there is no voter in any slave State, but who has 
more legal power in the government than any voter in any free 
State. There is no instance of exact equality ; and the disadvantage 
is against us the whole chapter through. This principle, in the ag- 
gregate, gives the slave States in the present Congress twenty ad- 
ditional representatives, being seven more than the whole majority 
by which they passed the Nebraska bill. 

Now all this is manifestly unfair ; yet I do not mention it to com- 
plain of it, in so far as it is already settled. It is in the Constitu- 
tion, and I do not for that cause, or any other cause, propose to 
destroy, or alter, or disregard the Constitution. I stand to it, fairly, 
fully, and firmly. 

But when I am told I must leave it altogether to other people to 
say whether new partners are to be bred up and brought into the 
firm, on the same degrading terms against me, I respectfully demur. 
I insist that whether I shall be a whole man, or only the half of one, 
in comparison with others, is a question in which I am somewhat 
concerned, and one which no other man can have a sacred right of 
deciding for me. If I am wrong in this — if it really be a sacred 
right of self-government in the man who shall go to Nebraska to 
decide whether he will be the equal of me or the double of me, then, 
after he shall have exercised that right, and thereby shall have re- 
duced me to a stiU smaller fraction of a man than I ab*eady am, I 
should like for some gentleman, deeply skilled in the mysteries of 
sacred rights, to provide himself with a microscope, and peep about, 
and find out, if he can, what has become of my sacred rights. They 
will surely be too small for detection with the naked eye. 

Finally, I insist that if there is anything which it is the duty of 
the whole people to never intrust to any hands but their own, that 
thing is the preservation and perpetuity of their own liberties and 
institutions. And if they shall think, as I do, that the extension of 
slavery endangers them more than any or all other causes, how re- 
creant to themselves if they submit the question, and with it the fate 
of their country, to a mere handful of men bent only on self-interest. 
If this question of slavery extension were an insignificant one — one 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 199 

having no power to do harm — it might be shuffled aside in this way; 
and being, as it is, the great Behemoth of danger, shall the strong 
grip of the nation be loosened upon him, to intrust him to the hands 
of such feeble keepers ? 

I have done with this mighty argument of self-government. Go, 
sacred thing ! Go in peace. 

But Nebraska is urged as a great Union-saving measure. Well, 
I too go for saving the Union. Much as I hate slavery, I would 
consent to the extension of it rather than see the Union dissolved. 
Just as I would consent to any great evil to avoid a greater one. 
But when I go to Union-saving, I must believe, at least, that the 
means I employ have some adaptation to the end. To my mind, 
Nebraska has no such adaptation. 

It hath no relish of salvation in it. 

It is an aggravation, rather, of the only one thing which ever en- 
dangers the Union. "When it came upon us, all was peace and quiet. 
The nation was looking to the forming of new bonds of union, and 
a long course of peace and prosperity seemed to lie before us. In 
the whole range of possibility, there scarcely appears to me to have 
been anything out of which the slavery agitation could have been 
revived, except the very project of repealing the Missouri Compro- 
mise. Every inch of territory we owned already had a definite set- 
tlement of the slavery question, by which all parties were pledged 
to abide. Indeed, there was no uninhabited country on the conti- 
nent which we could acquire, if we except some extreme northern 
regions which are wholly out of the question. 

In this state of affairs the Genius of Discord himself could scarcely 
have invented a way of again setting us by the ears but by turning 
back and destroying the peace measures of the past. The counsels 
of that Genius seem to have prevailed. The Missouri Compromise 
was repealed ; and here we are in the midst of a new slavery agita- 
tion, such, I think, as we have never seen before. Who is respon- 
sible for this? Is it those who resist the measure, or those who 
causelessly brought it forward and pressed it through, having rea- 
son to know, and in fact knowing, it must and would be so resisted ? 
It could not but be expected by its author that it would be looked 
upon as a measure for the extension of slavery, aggravated by a 
gross breach of faith. 

Argue as you wiU and long as you will, this is the naked front 
and aspect of the measui'e. And in this aspect it could not but 
produce agitation. Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's 
nature — opposition to it in his love of justice. These principles 
are an eternal antagonism, and when brought into collision so 
fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and 
convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missoui'i Com- 
promise, repeal all compromises, repeal the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human 
nature. It still will be the abundance of man's heart that slavery 
extension is wrong, and out of the abundance of his heart his mouth 
will continue to speak. 



200 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The structure, too, of the Nebraska bill is very peculiar. The 
people are to decide the question of slavery for themselves; but 
when they are to decide, or how they are to decide, or whether, 
when the question is once decided, it is to remain so or is to be sub- 
ject to an indefinite succession of new trials, the law does not say. 
Is it to be decided by the first dozen settlers who arrive there, or is 
it to await the arrival of a hundred ? Is it to be decided by a vote 
of the people or a vote of the legislature, or, indeed, by a vote of 
any sort ? To these questions the law gives no answer. There is a 
mystery about this ; for when a member proposed to give the legis- 
lature express authority to exclude slavery, it was hooted down by 
the friends of the bill. This fact is worth remembering. Some 
Yankees in the East are sending emigrants to Nebraska to exclude 
slavery from it ; and, so far as I can judge, they expect the question 
to be decided by voting in some way or other. But the Missourians 
are awake, too. They are within a stone's-throw of the contested 
ground. They hold meetings and pass resolutions, in which not the 
slightest allusion to voting is made. They resolve that slavery 
already exists in the Territor}^ ; that more shall go there ; that they, 
remaining in Missouri, will protect it, and that Abolitionists shall 
be hung or driven away. Through all this bowie-knives and six- 
shooters are seen plainly enough, but never a glimpse of the ballot- 
box. 

And, really, what is the result of all this? Each party within 
having numerous and determined backers without, is it not probable 
that the contest will come to blows and bloodshed ? Could there be 
a more apt invention to bring about collision and violence on the 
slavery question than this Nebraska project is? I do not charge or 
believe that such was intended by Congress ; but if they had literally 
formed a ring and placed champions within it to fight out the con- 
troversy, the fight could be no more likely to come off than it is. 
And if this fight should begin, is it likely to take a very peaceful. 
Union-saving turn ? Will not the first drop of blood so shed be the 
real knell of the Union ? 

The Missouri Compromise ought to be restored. For the sake of 
the Union, it ought to be restored. We ou^lit to elect a House of 
Representatives which will vote its restoration. If by any means 
we omit to do this, what follows? Slavery may or may not be 
established in Nebraska. But whether it be or not, we shall have re- 
pudiated — discarded from the councils of the nation — the spirit of 
compromise ; for who, after this, will ever trust in a national com- 
promise? The spirit of mutual concession — that spirit which first 
gave us the Constitution, and which has thrice saved the Union — we 
shall have strangled and cast from us forever. And what shall we 
have in lieu of it ? The South flushed with triumph and tempted to 
excess ; the North, betrayed as they believe, brooding on wrong and 
burning for revenge. One side will provoke, the other resent. The 
one will taunt, the other defy j one aggresses, the other retaliates. 
Ah'eady a few in the North defy all constitutional restraints, re- 
sist the execution of the fugitive-slave law, and even menace the 
institution of slavery in the States where it exists. Already a few 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 201 

in the South claim the constitutional right to take and to hold 
slaves in the free States — demand the revival of the slave-trade — 
and demand a treaty with Great Britain by which fugitive slaves 
may be reclaimed from Canada. As yet they are but few on either 
side. It is a grave question for lovers of the Union, whether the 
final destruction of the Missouri Compromise, and with it the spirit 
of all compromise, will or will not embolden and embitter each of 
these, and fatally increase the number of both. 

But restore the compromise, and what then ? We thereby restore 
the national faith, the national confidence, the national feeling of 
brotherhood. We thereby reinstate the spirit of concession and 
compromise, that spirit which has never failed us in past perils, and 
which may be safely trusted for all the future. The South ought 
to join in doing this. The peace of the nation is as dear to tbem 
as to us. In memories of the past and hopes of the future, they 
share as largely as we. It would be on their part a great act — great 
in its spirit, and great in its effect. It would be worth to the nation 
a hundred years' purchase of peace and prosperity. And what of 
sacrifice would they make ? They only surrender to us what they 
gave us for a consideration long, long ago; what they have not 
now asked for, struggled or cared for ; what has been thrust upon 
them, not less to theii* astonishment than to ours. 

But it is said we cannot restore it; that though we elect every 
member of the lower House, the Senate is still against us. It is 
quite true that of the senators who passed the Nebraska bill, a 
majority of the whole Senate will retain their seats in spite of the 
elections of this and the next year. But if at these elections their 
several constituencies shall clearly express their will against Ne- 
braska, will these senators disregard their will 1 Will they neither 
obey nor make room for those who will? 

But even if we fail to technically restore the compromise, it is 
still a great point to carry a popular vote in favor of the restora- 
tion. The moral weight of such a vote cannot be estimated too 
highly. The authors of Nebraska are not at all satisfied with the 
destruction of the compromise — an indorsement of this principle 
they proclaim to be the great object. With them, Nebraska alone 
is a small matter — to establish a principle for future use is what 
they particularly desire. 

The future use is to be the planting of slavery wherever in the 
wide world local and unorganized opposition cannot prevent it. 
Now, if you wish to give them this indorsement, if you wish to es- 
tablish tliis principle, do so. I shall regret it, but it is your right. 
On the contrary, if you are opposed to the principle, — intend to give 
it no such indorsement, — let no wheedling, no sophistry, divert you 
from throwing a direct vote against it. 

Some men, mostly Whigs, who condemn the repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compromise, nevertheless hesitate to go for its restoration, 
lest they be thrown in company with the Abolitionists. Will they 
allow me, as an old Whig, to tell them, good-humoredly, that I think 
this is very silly? Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand 
with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. 



202 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Stand with the Abolitionist in restoring the Missouri Compromise, 
and stand against him when he attempts to repeal the fugitive-slave 
law. In the latter case you stand with the Southern disunionist. 
What of that ? you are still right. In both cases you are right. In 
both cases you expose the dangerous extremes. In both you stand 
on middle ground, and hold the ship level and steady. In both you 
are national, and nothing less than national. This is the good old 
Whig ground. To desert such ground because of any company, is 
to be less than a Whig — less than a man — less than an American. 

I particularly object to the new position which the avowed prin- 
ciple of this Nebraska law gives to slavery in the body politic. I 
object to it because it assumes that there can be moral right in the 
enslaving of one man by another. I object to it as a dangerous 
dalliance for a free people — a sad evidence that, feeling prosperity, 
we forget right; that liberty, as a principle, we have ceased to re- 
vere. 1 object to it because the fathers of the republic eschewed 
and rejected it. The argument of '' necessity " was the only argu- 
ment they ever admitted in favor of slavery : and so far, and so far 
only, as it earned them did they ever go. They found the institu- 
tion existing among us, which they could not help, and they cast 
blame upon the British king for having permitted its introduction. 
Before the Constitution they prohibited its introduction into the 
Northwestern Territory, the only country we owned then free from 
it. At the framing and adoption of the Constitution, they forbore 
to so much as mention the word ''slave " or " slavery " in the whole 
instrument. In the provision for the recovery of fugitives, the 
slave is spoken of as a " person held to service or labor." In that 
prohibiting the abolition of the African slave-trade for twenty 
years, that trade is spoken of as '^ the migration or importation of 
such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to 
admit," etc. These are the only provisions alluding to slavery. 
Thus the thing is hid away in the Constitution, just as an afflicted 
man hides away a wen or cancer which he dares not cut out at 
once, lest he bleed to death, — with the promise, nevertheless, that 
the cutting may begin at a certain time. Less than this our fathers 
could not do, and more they would not do. Necessity di-ove them 
so far, and further they would not go. But this is not all. The 
earliest Congress under the Constitution took the same view of 
slavery. They hedged and hemmed it in to the narrowest limits of 
necessity. 

In 1794 they prohibited an outgoing slave-trade — that is, the 
taking of slaves from the United States to sell. In 1798 they prohibi- 
ted the bringing of slaves from Africa into the Mississippi Territory, 
this Territory then comprising what are now the States of Mississippi 
and Alabama. This was ten years before they had the authority to 
do the same thing as to the States existing at the adoption of the Con- 
stitution. In 1800 they prohibited American citizens from trading 
in slaves between foreign countries, as, for instance, from Africa to 
Brazil. In 1803 they passed a law in aid of one or two slave-State 
laws, in restraint of the internal slave-trade. In 1807, in apparent 
hot haste, they passed the law, nearly a year in advance, — to take 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 203 

effect the first day of 1808, the very first day the Constitution would 
permit, — prohibiting the African slave-trade by heavy pecuniary 
and corporal penalties. In 1820, finding these provisions ineffectual, 
they declared the slave-trade piracy, and annexed to it the extreme 
penalty of death. While all this was passing in the General Govern- 
ment, five or six of the original slave States had adopted systems 
of gradual emancipation, by which the institution was rapidly becom- 
ing extinct within their limits. Thus we see that the plain, unmis- 
takable spirit of that age toward slavery was hostility to the prin- 
ciple and toleration only by necessity. 

But now it is to be transformed into a "sacred right." Nebraska 
brings it forth, places it on the highroad to extension and perpe- 
tuity, and with a pat on its back says to it, "■ Go, and God speed you." 
Henceforth it is to be the chief jewel of the nation — the very figure- 
head of the ship of state. Little by little, but steadily as man's 
march to the grave, we have been giving up the old for the new faith. 
Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are cre- 
ated equal ; but now from that beginning we have run down to the 
other declaration, that for some men to enslave others is a " sacred 
right of self-government." These principles cannot stand together. 
They are as opposite as God and Mammon ; and who ever holds to the 
one must despise the other. When Pettit, in connection with his 
support of the Nebraska bill, called the Declaration of Independence 
'^ a self-evident lie," he only did what consistency and candor require 
all other Nebraska men to do. Of the forty-odd Nebraska senators 
who sat present and heard him, no one rebuked him. Nor am I 
apprised that any Nebraska newspaper, or any Nebraska orator, in the 
whole nation has ever yet rebuked him. If this had been said among 
Marion's men. Southerners though they were, what would have be- 
come of the man who said it? If this had been said to the men who 
captured Andre, the man who said it would probably have been hung 
sooner than Andre was. If it had been said in old Independence Hall 
seventy-eight years a^o, the very doorkeeper would have throttled 
the man and thrust him into the street. Let no one be deceived. 
The spirit of seventy-six and the spirit of Nebraska are utter antag- 
onisms; and the former is being rapidly displaced by the latter. 

Fellow-countrymen, Americans, South as well as North, shall we 
make no effort to arrest this? Already the liberal party throughout 
the world express the apprehension " that the one retrogi-ade insti- 
tution in America is undermining the principles of progress, and 
fatally violating the noblest political system the world ever saw." 
This is not the taunt of enemies, but the warning of friends. Is it 
quite safe to disregard it — to despise it? Is there no danger to lib- 
ert}^ itself in discarding the earliest practice and first precept of our 
ancient faith? In our greedy chase to make profit of the negro, let 
us beware lest we ''cancel and tear in pieces" even the white man's 
charter of freedom. 

Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us re- 
purify it. Let us turn and wash it white in the spirit, if not the blood, 
of the Revolution. Let us turn slavery from its claims of "moral 
right" back upon its existing legal rights and its arguments of "ne- 



204 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

cessity." Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it, and 
there let it rest in peace. Let us readopt the Declaration of Inde- 

Eendeuce, and with it the practices and policy which harmonize with it. 
let North and South — let all Americans — let all lovers of liberty 
everywhere join in the great and good work. If we do this, we 
shall not only have saved the Union, but we shall have so saved it as 
to make and to keep it forever worthy of the saving. We shall have 
so saved it that the succeeding millions of free happy people, the 
world over, shall rise up and call us blessed to the latest generations. 

At Springfield, twelve days ago, where I had spoken substantially 
as I have here. Judge Douglas replied to me; and as he is to reply to 
me here, I shall attempt to anticipate him by noticing some of the 
points he made there. He commenced by stating I had assumed all 
the way through that the principle of the Nebraska bill would have 
the effect of extending slavery. He denied that this was intended, or 
that this effect would follow. 

I will not reopen the argument upon this point. That such was 
tlie intention the world believed at the start, and will continue to 
believe. This was the countenance of the thing, and both friends and 
enemies instantly recognized it as such. That countenance cannot 
now be changed by argument. You can as easily argue the color 
out of the negro's skin. Like the "bloody hand," you may wash it 
and wash it, the red witness of guilt still sticks and stares horribly 
at you. 

Next he says that congressional intervention never prevented 
slavery anywhere ; that it did not prevent it in the Northwestern 
Territory, nor in Illinois ; that, in fact, Illinois came into the Union 
as a slave State; that the principle of the Nebraska bill expelled it 
from Illinois, from several old States, from everywhere. 

Now this is mere quibbling all the way through. If the ordinance 
of '87 did not keep slavery out of the Northwest Territory, how 
happens it that the northwest shore of the Ohio River is entirely 
free from it, while the southeast shore, less than a mile distant, 
along nearly the whole length of the river, is entirely covered with it ? 

If that ordinance did not keep it out of Illinois, what was it that 
made the difference between Illinois and Missouri f They lie side 
by side, the Mississippi River only dividing them while their early 
settlements were within the same latitude. Between 1810 and 1820, 
the number of slaves in Missouri increased 7211, while in Illinois 
in the same ten years they decreased 51. This appears by the census 
returns. During nearly all of that ten years both were Territories, 
not States. During this time the ordinance forbade slavery to go 
into Illinois, and nothing forbade it to go into Missouri. It* did go 
into Missouri, and did not go into Illinois. That is the fact. Can 
any one doubt as to the reason of it ? But he says Illinois came 
into the Union as a slave State. Silence, perhaps, would be the best 
answer to this flat contradiction of the known, history of the country. 
What are the facts upon which this bold assertion is based ? When we 
first acquired the country, as far back as 1787, there were some slaves 
within it held by the French inhabitants of Kaskaskia. The terri- 
torial legislation admitted a few negroes from the slave States as 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 205 

indentured servants. One year after the adoption of the first State 
constitution, the whole number of them was — what do you think? 
Just one hundred and seventeen, while the aggregate free popula- 
tion was 55,094, — about four hundred and seventy to one. Upon 
this state of facts the people framed their constitution prohibiting 
the further introduction of slavery, with a sort of guarantee to the 
owners of the few indentured servants, giving freedom to their chil- 
dren to be born thereafter, and making no mention whatever of any 
supposed slave for life. Out of this small matter the judge mauii- 
factures his ai'gument that Illinois came into the Union as a slave 
State. Let the facts be the answer to the argument. 

The principles of the Nebraska bill, he says, expelled slavery from 
Illinois. The principle of that bill first planted it here — that is, it 
first came because there was no law to prevent it, first came before 
we owned the country ; and finding it here, and having the ordinance 
of '87 to prevent its increasing, our people struggled along, and 
finally got rid of it as best they could. 

But the principle of the Nebraska bill abolished slavery in several 
of the old States. Well, it is true that several of the old States, in 
the last quarter of the last centuiy, did adopt systems of gradual 
emancipation by which the institution has finally become extinct 
within their limits ; but it may or may not be true that the principle 
of the Nebraska bill was the cause that led to the adoption of these 
measures. It is now more than fifty years since the last of these 
States adopted its system of emancipation. 

K the Nebraska bill is the real author of the benevolent works, it 
is rather deplorable that it has for so long a time ceased working al- 
together. Is there not some reason to suspect that it was the prin- 
ciple of the Revolution, and not the principle of the Nebraska bill, 
that led to emancipation in these old States? Leave it to the people 
of these old emancipating States, and I am quite certain they will 
decide that neither that nor any other good thing ever did or ever 
will come of the Nebraska bill. 

In the course of my main argument. Judge Douglas interrupted 
me to say that the principle of the Nebraska bill was very old ; that 
it originated when God made man, and placed good and evil before 
him, allowing him to choose for himself, being responsible for the 
choice he should make. At the time I thought this was merely play- 
ful, and I answered it accordingly. But in his reply to me he renewed 
it as a serious argument. In seriousness, then, the facts of this prop- 
osition are not true as stated. God did not place good and evil 
before man, teUing him to make his choice. On the contrary, he did 
tell him there was one tree of the fruit of which he should not eat, 
upon pain of certain death. I should scarcely wish so strong a pro- 
hibition against slavery in Nebraska. 

But this argument strikes me as not a little remarkable in another 
particular — in its strong resemblance to the old argument for the 
" divine right of kings." By the latter, the king is to do just as he 
pleases with his white subjects, being responsible to God alone. By 
the former, the white man is to do just as he pleases with his black 
slaves, being responsible to God alone. The two things are pre- 



206 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

cisely alike, and it is but natural tliat they should find similar argu- 
ments to sustain them. 

I had argued that the application of the principle of self-govern- 
ment, as contended for, would require the revival of the African 
slave-trade : that no argument could be made in favor of a man's 
right to take slaves to Nebraska, which could not be equally well 
made in favor of his right to bring them from the coast of Africa. 
The judge replied that the Constitution requires the suppression 
of the foreign slave-trade, but does not require the prohibition of 
slavery in the Territories. That is a mistake in point of fact. The 
Constitution does not require the action of Congress in either case, 
and it does authorize it in both. And so there is still no difference 
between the cases. 

In regard to what I have said of the advantage the slave States 
have over the free in the matter of representation, the judge re- 
plied that we in the free States count five free negroes as five white 
people, while in the slave States they count five slaves as three 
whites only ; and that the advantage, at last, was on the side of 
the free States. 

Now, in the slave States they count free negroes just as we do ; 
and it so happens that, besides their slaves, they have as many free 
negroes as we have, and thirty thousand over. Thus, their free ne- 
groes more than balance ours ; and their advantage over us, in con- 
sequence of their slaves, still remains as I stated it. 

In reply to my argument that the compromise measures of 1850 
were a system of equivalents, and that the provisions of no one of 
them could fairly be carried to other subjects without its corre- 
sponding equivalent being carried with it, the judge denied outright 
that these measures had any connection with or dependence upon 
each other. This is mere desperation. If they had no connection, 
why are they always spoken of in connection? Wliy has he so 
spoken of them a thousand times? Why has he constantly called 
them a series of measures ? Why does everybody call them a com- 
promise ? Why was California kept out of the Union six or seven 
months, if it was not becanse of its connection with the other 
measures? Webster's leading definition of the verb ''to compro- 
mise" is ''to adjust and settle a difference, by mutual agreement, 
with concessions of claims by the parties," This conveys precisely 
the popular understanding of the word " compromise." 

We knew, before the judge told us, that these measures passed 
separately, and in distinct bills, and that no two of them were 
passed by the votes of precisely the same members. But we also 
know, and so does he know, that no one of them could have passed 
both branches of Congress but for the understanding that the others 
were to pass also. Upon this understanding, each got votes which 
it could have got in no other way. It is this fact which gives to the 
measures their true character ; and it is the universal knowledge of 
this fact that has given them the name of " compromises," so expres- 
sive of that true character. 

I had asked " if, in carrying the Utah and New Mexico laws to 
Nebraska, you could clear away other objection, how could you leave 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 207 

Nebraska ' perfectly free ' to introduce slavery before she forms a 
constitution during her territorial government, while the Utah and 
New Mexico laws only authorize it when they form constitutions 
and are admitted into the Union'?" To this Judge Douglas an- 
swered that the Utah and New Mexico laws also authorized it be- 
fore ; and to prove this he read from one of their laws, as follows : 
" That the legislative power of said territory shall extend to all 
rightful subjects of legislation, consistent with the Constitution of 
the United States and the provisions of this act." 

Now it is perceived from the reading of this that there is nothing 
express upon the subject, but that the authority is sought to be 
implied merely for the general provision of '' all rightful subjects 
of legislation." In reply to this I insist, as a legal rule of construc- 
tion, as well as the plain, popular view of the matter, that the ex- 
press provision for Utah and New Mexico coming in with slavery, 
if they choose, when they shall form constitutions, is an exclusion 
of all implied authority on the same subject ; that Congress, having 
the subject distinctly in their minds when they made the express pro- 
vision, they therein expressed their whole meaning on that subject. 

The judge rather insinuated that I had found it convenient to 
forget the Washington territorial law passed in 1853. This was a 
division of Oregon organizing the northern part as the Territory 
of Washington. He asserted that by this act the ordinance of '87, 
theretofore existing in Oregon, was repealed ; that nearly all the 
members of Congress voted for it, beginning in the House of Rep- 
resentatives with Charles Allen of Massachusetts, and ending with 
Richard Yates of Illinois; and that he could not understand how those 
who now oppose the Nebraska bill so voted there, unless it was be- 
cause it was then too soon after both the great political parties had 
ratified the compromises of 1850, and the ratification therefore was 
too fresh to be then repudiated. 

Now I had seen the Washington act before, and I have caref uUy 
examined it since; and I aver that there is no repeal of the ordi- 
nance of '87, or of any prohibition of slavery, in it. In express 
terms, there is absolutely nothing in the whole law upon the sub- 
ject — in fact, nothing to lead a reader to think of the subject. To 
my judgment it is equally free from everything from which repeal 
can be legally implied ; but however this may be, are men now to 
be entrapped by a legal implication, extracted from covert language, 
introduced perhaps for the very purpose of entrapping them? I 
sincerely wish every man could read this law quite through, care- 
fully watching every sentence and every line for a repeal of the 
ordinance of '87, or anything equivalent to it. 

Another point on the Washington act. If it was intended to be 
modeled after the Utah and New Mexico acts, as Judge Douglas in- 
sists, why was it not inserted in it, as in them, that Washington was 
to come in with or without slavery as she may choose at the adop- 
tion of her constitution? It has no such provision in it; and I 
defy the ingenuity of man to give a reason for the omission, other 
than that it was not intended to follow the Utah and New Mexico 
laws in regard to the question of slavery. 



208 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The Washington act not only differs vitally fi'om the Utah and 
New Mexico acts, but the Nebraska act differs vitally from both. 
By the latter act the people are left ** perfectly fi-ee" to regulate 
their own domestic concerns, etc. ; but in all the former, all their 
laws are to ])e submitted to Congress, and if disapproved are to be 
null. The "Washington act goes even further; it absolutely pro- 
hibits the territorial legislature, by very strong and guarded lan- 
guage, from establishing banks or borrowing money on the faith of 
the Territory. Is this the sacred right of self-government we hear 
vaunted so much ? No, sir; the Nebraska bill finds no model in the 
acts of '50 or the Washington act. It finds no model in any law 
from Adam till to-day. As Phillips says of Napoleon, the Nebraska 
act is grand, gloomy and peculiar, wrapped in the solitude of its own 
originality, without a model and without a shadow upon the earth. 

In the course of his reply Senator Douglas remarked in substance 
that he had always considered this government was made for the 
white people and not for the negroes. Why, in point of mere fact, 
I think so too. But in this remark of the judge there is a signifi- 
cance which I think is the key to the great mistake (if there is any 
such mistake) which he has made in this Nebraska measure. It 
shows that the judge has no very vivid impression that the negro is 
human, and consequently has no idea that there can be any moral 
question in legislating about him. In his view the question of 
whether a new country shall be slave or free, is a matter of as utter 
indifference as it is whether his neighbor shall plant his farm with 
tobacco or stock it with horned cattle. Now, whether this view is 
right or wrong, it is very certain that the great mass of mankind 
take a totally different view. They consider slavery a great moral 
wrong, and their feehng against it is not evanescent, but eternal. It 
lies at the very foundation of their sense of justice, and it cannot be 
trifled with. It is a great and durable element of popular action, and 
I think no statesman can safely disregard it. 

Our senator also objects that those who oppose him in this matter 
do not entirely agree with one another. He reminds me that in my 
firm adherence to the constitutional rights of the slave States, I 
differ widely from others who are cooperating with me in opposing 
the Nebraska biU, and he says it is not quite fair to oppose him in 
this variety of ways. He should remember that he took us by sur- 
prise — astounded us by this measure. We were thunderstruck and 
stunned, and we reeled and fell in utter confusion. But we rose, each 
fighting, grasping whatever he could first reach — a scythe, a pitch- 
fork, a chopping-ax, or a butcher's cleaver. We struck in the direc- 
tion of the sound, and we were rapidly closing in upon him. He 
must not think to divert us from our purpose by showing us that our 
driU, our dress, and our weapons are not entirely perfect and uni- 
form. When the storm shall be past he shaU find us still Americans, 
no less devoted to the continued union and prosperity of the country 
than heretofore. 

Finally, the judge invokes against me the memory of Clay and 
Webster. They were great men, and men of great deeds. But where 
have I assailed them? For what is it that their life-long enemy shall 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 209 

now make profit by assuming to defend them against me, their life- 
long friend? I go against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise; 
did they ever go for it? They went for the compromise of 1850; did 
I ever go against them? They were greatly devoted to the Union; 
to the small measure of my ability was I ever less so? Clay and 
Webster were dead before this question arose ; by what authority 
shall our senator say they would espouse his side of it if alive? Mr. 
Clay was the leading spirit in making the Missouri Compromise ; is 
it verv credil)le that if now alive he would take the lead in the 
breaking of it? The truth is that some support from Whigs is now 
a necessity with the judge, and for this it is that the names of Clay 
and Webster are invoked. His old friends have deserted him in 
such numbers as to leave too few to live by. He came to his own, 
and his own received him not ; and lo ! he turns unto the Gentiles. 
A word now as to the judge's desperate assumption that the com- 
promises of 1850 had no connection with one another ; that Illinois 
came into the Union as a slave State, and some other similar ones. 
This is no other than a bold denial of the history of the country. If 
we do not know that the compromises of 1850 were dependent on each 
other ; if we do not know that Illinois came into the Union as a free 
State, — we do not know anything. If we do not know these things, 
we do not know that we ever had a Revolutionary war or such a 
chief as Washington. To deny these things is to deny oiu' national 
axioms, — or dogmas, at least, — and it puts an end to all argument. If 
a man will stand up and assert, and repeat and reassert, that two and 
two do not make four, I know nothing in the power of argument 
that can stop him. I think I can answer the judge so long as he 
sticks to the premises ; but when he flies from them, I cannot work 
any argument into the consistency of a mental gag and actually close 
his mouth with it. In such a case I can only commend him to the 
seventy thousand answers just in from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and 
Indiana. 

November 27, 1854. — Letter to T. J. Henderson. 

Springfield, November 27, 1854. 
T. J. Henderson, Esq. 

My dear Sir : It has come round that a Whig may, by possibility, 
be elected to the United States Senate ; and 1 want the chance of 
being the man. You are a member of the legislature, and have a 
vote to give. Think it over, and see whether you can do better than 
go for me. Write me at all events, and let this be confidential. 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 



November 27, 1854. — Letter to I. Codding. 

Springfield, November 27, 1854. 
I. Codding, Esq. 

Bear Sir : Your note of the 13th requesting my attendance on the 
Repubhcan State Central Committee, on the 17th instant at Chicago, 
Vol. I.— 14. 



210 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

was, owing to my absence from home, received on the evening of 
that day (17th) only. While I have pen in hand allow me to say I 
have been perplexed some to understand why my name was placed 
on that committee. I was not consulted on the subject, nor was I 
apprised of the appointment until I discovered it by accident two 
or three weeks afterward. I suppose my opposition to the principle 
of slavery is as strong as that of any member of the Republican 
party; but I have also supposed that the extent to which I feel 
authorized to carry that opposition, practically, was not at all satis- 
factory to that party. The leading men who organized that party 
were present on the 4th of October at the discussion between Doug- 
las and myself at Springfield, and had full opportunity to not mis- 
understand my position. Do I misunderstand them ? Please write 
and inform me. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 



December 6, 1854.— -Letter to Justice John McLean. 

Springfield, Illinois, December 6, 1854. 
Hon. Justice McLean. 

Sir: I understand it is in contemplation to displace the present 
clerk, and appoint a new one, for the Circuit and District Courts 
of Illinois. I am very friendly to the present incumbent, and both 
for his own sake and that of his family, I wish him to be retained 
so long as it is possible for the court to do so. In the contingency 
of his removal, however, I have recommended William Butler as 
his successor, and I do not wish what I write now to be taken as 
any abatement of that recommendation. 

William J. Black is also an applicant for the appointment, and I 
write this at the solicitation of his friends to say that he is every 
way worthy of the office, and that I doubt not the conferring it upon 
him will give great satisfaction. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 



December 11, 1854.— Letter to E. B. Washburne. 

Springfield, Illinois, December 11, 1854. 
Hon. E. B. Washburne. 

My dear Sir: Your note of the 5th is just received. It is too 
true that by the official returns Allen beats Colonel Archer one vote. 
There is a report to-day that there is a mistake in the returns from 
Clay County, giving Allen sixty votes more than he really has; but 
this, I fear,* is itself a mistake. I have just examined the returns 
from that county at the secretary's office, and find that the aggre- 
gate vote for sheriff only falls short by three votes of the aggregate, 
as reported, of Allen and Archer's vote. Our friends, however, are 
hot on the track, and will probe the matter to the bottom. As to 
my own matter, things continue to look reasonably well. I wrote 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 211 

your friend, George Gage ; and three days ago had an answer from 
him, in which he talks out plainly, as your letter taught me to 
expect. To-day I had a letter from Turner. He says he is not com- 
mitted, and will not be until he sees how most effectually to oppose 
slavery extension. 

I have not ventured to write all the members in your district, lest 
some of them should be offended by the indelicacy of the thing — 
that is, coming from a total stranger. Could you not drop some of 
them a line ? Very truly your friend, 

A. Lincoln. 



December 14, 1854. — Letter to E. B. Washburne. 

Springfield, December 14, 1854. 
Hon. E. B. "Washburne. 

My dea?' Sir : So far as I am concerned, there must be sometliiug 
wrong about United States senator at Chicago. My most intimate 
friends there do not answer my letters, and I cannot get a word from 
them. Wentworth has a knack of knowing things better than most 
men. I wish you would pump him, and write me what you get from 
him. Please do this as soon as you can, as the time is growing 
short. Don't let any one know I have written you this ; for there 
may be those opposed to me nearer about you than you think. 

Very truly yours, etc., A. Lincoln. 



December 15, 1854. — Letter to T. J. Henderson. 

Springfield, December 15, 1854. 
Hon. T. J. Henderson. 

Bear Sir: Yours of the 11th was received last night, and for 
which I thank you. Of course, I prefer myself to all others ; yet it 
is neither in my heart nor my conscience to say I am any better 
man than Mr. Williams. "We shall have a terrible struggle with our 
adversaries. They are desperate, and bent on desperate deeds. I 
accidentally learned of one of the leaders here wi-itiug to a member 
south of here, in about the following language : 

"We are beaten. They have a clear majority of at least nine on joint bal- 
lot. They outnumber us, but we must outmanage them. Douglas must be 
sustained. "We must elect the Speaker; and we must elect a Nebraska United 
States senator, or elect none at all. 

Similar letters, no doubt, are written to every Nebraska member. 
Be considering how we can best meet, and foil, and beat them. 

I send you by this mail a copy of my Peoria speech. You may 
have seen it before, or you may not think it worth seeing now. Do 
not speak of the Nebraska letter mentioned above ; I do not wish it 
to become public that I receive such information. 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 



212 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

December 19, 1854. — Letter to E. B. Washburne. 

Springfield, December 19, 1854. 
Hon. E. B. Washburne. 

Bfy dear Sir : Yours of tbe 12th just received. The objection of 
your friend at Winnebago rather astonishes me. For a senator to 
be the impartial representative of his whole State is so plain a 
duty that I pledge myself to the observance of it without hesita- 
tion, but not without some mortification that any one should sus- 
pect me of an inclination to the contrary. I was eight years a 
representative of Sangamon County in the legislature ; and al- 
though in a conflict of interests between that and other counties it 
perhaps would have been my duty to stick to old Sangamon, yet 
it is not within my recollection tLat the northern members ever 
wanted my vote for any interest of theirs without getting it. My 
distinct recollection is that the northern members and Sangamon 
members were always on good terms, and always cooperating on 
measures of policy. The canal was then the great northern measure, 
and it from first to last had our votes as readily as the votes of the 
north itself. Indeed, I shall be surprised if it can be pointed out 
that in any instance the north sought our aid and failed to get it. 

Again, I was a member of Congress one term — the term when Mr. 
Turner was the legal member and you were a lobby member from 
your then district. Now I think I might appeal to Mr. Turner and 
yourself, whether you did not always have my feeble service for 
the asking. In the case of conflict, I might without blame have 
preferred my own district. As a senator I should claim no right, 
as I should feel no inclination, to give the central portion of the 
State any preference over the north, or any other portion of it. 

Very truly your friend, A. Lincoln. 

January 6, 1855. — Letter to E. B. Washburne. 
Confidential. 

Springfield, January 6, 1855. 
Hon. E. B. Washburne. 

My dear Sir : I telegraphed you as to the organization of the two 
houses. T. J. Turner elected Speaker, 40 to 24 : House not full ; Dr. 
Richmond of Schuyler was his opponent ; Anti-Nebraska also elected 
all the other officers of the House of Representatives. In the Senate 
Anti-Nebraska elected George T. Brown, of the ^' Alton Courier," 
secretary ; and Dr. Ray, of the '^ Galena Jeffersonian," one of the 
clerks. In fact they elected all the officers, but some of them were 
Nebraska men elected over the regular Nebraska nominees. It is 
said that by this they get one or two Nebraska senators to go for 
bringing on the senatorial election. I cannot vouch for this. As 
to the senatorial election, I think very little more is known than 
was before the meeting of the legislature. Besides the ten or a 
dozen on our side who are willing to be known as candidates, I 
think there are fifty secretly watching for a chance. I do not know 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 213 

that it is much advantage to have the largest number of votes at 
the start. If I did know this to be an advantage, I should feel better, 
for I cannot doubt but I have more committals than any other 
man. Your district comes up tolerably well for me, but not unani- 
mously by any means. George Gage is for me, as you know. J. H. 
Adams is not committed to me, but I think will be for me. Mr. 
Talcott will not be for me as a first choice. Dr. Little and Mr. Sar- 
gent are openly for me. Professor Pinckney is for me, but wishes 
to be quiet. Dr. Whitney writes me that Rev. Mr. Lawrence will 
be for me, and his manner to me so indicates, but he has not 
spoken it out. Mr. Swan I have some slight hopes of. Turner 
says he is not committed, and I shall get him whenever I can make 
it appear to be his intei'est to go for me. Dr. Lyman and old Mr. 
Diggins will never go for me as a first choice. M. P. Sweet is here 
as a candidate, and I understand he claims that he has twenty-two 
members committed to him. I think some part of his estimate must 
be based on insufficient evidence, as I cannot well see where they 
are to be found, and as I can learn the name of one only — Day of 
La Salle. Still it may be so. There are more than twenty-two Anti- 
Nebraska members who are not committed to me. Tell Norton 
that Mr. Strunk and Mr. Wheeler come out plump for me, and for 
which I thank him. Judge Parks I have decided hopes of, but he 
says he is not committed. I understand myself as having twenty- 
six committals, and I do not think any other one man has ten. May 
be mistaken, though. The whole legislature stands : 

Senate A. N. 13 N. 12 

House of Representatives " 44 " 31 

57 43 

43 

14 majority. 
All here, but Kinney of St. Clair. 

Our special election here is plain enough when understood. Our 
adversaries pretended to be running no candidate, secretly notified 
all their men to be on hand, and, favored by a very rainy day, got 
a complete snap judgment on us. In November Sangamon gave 
Yates 2166 votes. On the rainy day she gave our man only 984, 
leaving him 82 votes behind. After all, the result is not of the least 
consequence. The Locos kept up a great chattering over it till the 
organization of the House of Representatives, since which they all 
seem to have forgotten it. G.'s letter to L., I think has not been re- 
ceived. Ask him if he sent it. Yours as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 

February 9, 1855. — Letter to E. B. Washburne. 

Springfield, Februaiy 9, 1855. 
Hon. E. B. Washburne. 

My dear Sir: The agony is over at last, and the result j^ou doubt- 
less know. I write this only to give you some particulars to explain 



214 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

what might appear difficult of understanding. I began with 44 
votes, Shields 41, and Trumbull 5, — yet Trumbull was elected. In 
fact, 47 different members voted for me, — getting three new ones on 
the second ballot, and losing foiu' old ones. How came my 47 to 
yield to Trumbull's 5? It was Governor Matteson's work. He has 
been secretly a candidate ever since (before, even) the fall election. 
All the members round about the canal were Anti-Nebraska, but 
were nevertheless nearly all Democrats and old personal friends of 
his. His plan was to privately impress them with the belief that he 
was as good Anti-Nebraska as any one else, — at least could be se- 
cured to be so by instructions, which could be easily passed. In this 
way he got from four to six of that sort of men to really prefer his 
election to that of any other man — all suh rosa, of course. One 
notable instance of this sort was with Mr. Strunk of Kankakee. At 
the beginning of the session he came a volunteer to tell me he was 
for me and would walk a hundred miles to elect me; but lo! it was 
not long before he leaked it out that he was going for me the first 
few ballots and then for Governor Matteson. 

The Nebraska men, of course, were not for Matteson; but when 
they found they could elect no avowed Nebraska man, they tardily 
determined to let him get whomever of our men he could, by what- 
ever means he could, and ask him no questions. In the mean time 
Osgood, Don Morrison, and Trapp of St. Clair had openly gone over 
from us. With the united Nebraska force and their recruits, open 
and covert, it gave Matteson more than enough to elect him. We 
saw into it plainly ten days ago, but with every possible effort could 
not head it off. All that remained of the Anti-Nebraska force, ex- 
cepting Judd, Cook, Palmer, Baker and Allen of Madison, and two 
or three of the secret Matteson men, would go into caucus, and I 
could get the nomination of that caucus. But the three senators and 
one of the two representatives above named " could never vote for a 
Whig," and this incensed some twenty Whigs to "think" they would 
never vote for the man of the five. So we stood, and so we went into 
the fight yesterday, — the Nebraska men very confident of the 
election of Matteson, though denying that he was a candidate, and 
we very much believing also that they would elect him. But they 
wanted first to make a show of good faith to Shields by voting for 
him a few times, and our secret Matteson men also wanted to make a 
show of good faith by voting with us a few times. So we led off. 
On the seventh ballot, I think, the signal was given to the Nebraska 
men to turn to Matteson, which they acted on to a man, with one 
exception, my old friend Strunk going with them, giving him 44 
votes. Next ballot the remaining Nebraska man and one pretended 
Anti went over to him, giving him 46. The next still another^ giving 
him 47, wanting only three of an election. In the mean time our 
friends, with a view of detaining our expected bolters, had been 
turning from me to Trumbull till he had risen to 35 and I had been 
reduced to 15. These would never desert me except by my direc- 
tion ; but I became satisfied that if we could prevent Matteson's 
election one or two ballots more, we could not possibly do so a single 
ballot after my friends should begin to return to me from TrumbuU. 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHA3I LINCOLN 215 

So I determined to strike at once, and accordingly advised my re- 
maining friends to go for him, which they did and elected him on 
the tenth ballot. 

Such is the way the thing was done. I think you would have 
done the same under the circumstances ; though Judge Davis, who 
came down this morning, declares he never would have consented 
to the forty-seven men being controlled by the five. I regret my 
defeat moderately, but I am not nervous about it. I could have 
headed off every combination and been elected, had it not been for 
Matteson's double game — and his defeat now gives me more 
pleasure than my own gives me pain. On the whole, it is perhaps 
as well for our general cause that Trumbull is elected. The Ne- 
braska men confess that they hate it worse than anything that could 
have happened. It is a great consolation to see them worse whipped 
than I am. I tell them it is their own fault — that they had abundant 
opportunity to choose between him and me, which they declined, 
and instead forced it on me to decide between him and Matteson. 

With my gi-ateful acknowledgments for the kind, active, and 
continued interest you have taken for me in this matter, allow me 
to subscribe myself Yours forever, 

A. Lincoln. 



August 15, 1855. — Letter to George Robertson. 

Springfield, Illinois, August 15, 1855. 
Hon. George Robertson, Lexington, Kentucky. 

My dear Sir : The volume you left for me has been received. I 
am really grateful for the honor of your kind remembrance, as well 
as for the book. The partial reading I have already given it has 
afforded me much of both pleasure and instruction. It was new to 
me that the exact question which led to the Missouri Compromise 
had arisen before it arose in regard to Missouri, and that you had 
taken so prominent a part in it. Your short but able and patriotic 
speech upon that occasion has not been improved upon since by 
those holding the same views, and, with all the lights you then had, 
the views you took appear to me as very reasonable. 

You are not a friend to slavery in the abstract. In that speech 
you spoke of " the peaceful extinction of slavery," and used other 
expressions indicating your belief that the thing was at some time 
to have an end. Since then we have had thirty-six years of expe- 
rience ; and this experience has demonstrated, I think, that there is 
no peaceful extinction of slavery in prospect for us. The signal 
failure of Henry Clay and other good and great men, in 1849, to 
effect anything in favor of gradual emancipation in Kentucky, to- 
gether with a thousand other signs, extinguished that hope utterly. 
On the question of liberty as a principle, we are not what we have 
been. When we were the political slaves of King George, and 
wanted to be free, we called the maxim that " all men are created 
equal " a self-evident truth, but now when we have grown fat, and 
have lost all dread of being slaves ourselves, we have become so 



216 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

greedy to be masters that we call the same maxim ^'a self-evident 
lie." The Fourth of July has not quite dwindled away ; it is still a 
great day — for burning fire-crackers ! ! ! 

That spirit which desired the peaceful extinction of slavery has 
itself become extinct with the occasion and the men of the Revolu- 
tion. Under the impulse of that occasion, nearly half the States 
adopted systems of emancipation at once, and it is a significant 
fact that not a single State has done the like since. So far as 
peaceful voluntary emancipation is concerned, the condition of the 
negro slave in America, scarcely less terrible to the contemplation 
of a free mind, is now as fixed and hopeless of change for the 
better, as that of the lost souls of the finally impenitent. The 
Autocrat of all the Russias will resign his crown and proclaim his 
subjects free republicans sooner than will our American masters 
voluntarily give up their slaves. 

Our political problem now is, " Can we as a nation continue to- 
gether permanently — forever — half slave and half free?" The 
problem is too mighty for me — may God, in his mercy, superin- 
tend the solution. Your much obliged friend and humble servant, 

A. Lincoln. 



August 24, 1855.— Letter to Joshua F. Speed. 

Springfield, August 24, 1855. 
Dear Speed: You know what a poor correspondent I am. Ever 
since I received your very agreeable letter of the 22d of May I have 
been intending to write you an answer to it. You suggest that in 
political action, now, you and I would differ. I suppose we would ; 
not quite as much, however, as you may think. You know I dis- 
like slavery, and you fully admit the abstract wrong of it. So far 
there is no cause of difference. But you say that sooner than yield 
your legal right to the slave, especially at the bidding of those who 
are not themselves interested, you would see the Union dissolved. 
I am not aware that any one is bidding you yield that right ; \QYy 
certainly I am not. I leave that matter entirely to yourself. I also 
acknowledge your rights and my obligations under the Constitu- 
tion in regard to your slaves. I confess I hate to see the poor crea- 
tures hunted down and caught and carried back to their stripes and 
unrequited toil ; but I bite my lips and keep quiet. In 1841 you 
and I had together a tedious low-water trip on a steamboat from 
Louisville to St. Louis. You may remember, as I well do, that from 
Louisville to the mouth of the Ohio there were on board ten or a 
dozen slaves shackled together with irons. That sight was a con- 
tinued torment to me, and I see something like it every time I 
touch the Ohio or any other slave border. It is not fair for you to 
assume that I have no interest in a thing which has, and continually 
exercises, the power of making me miserable. You ought rather to 
appreciate how much the great body of the Northern people do cru- 
cify their feelings, in order to maintain their loyalty to the Consti- 
tution and the Union. I do oppose the extension of slavery because 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 217 

my judgment and feeling so prompt me, and I am under no obliga- 
tions to the contrary. If for this you and I must differ, differ we 
must. You say, if you were President, you would send an army 
and hang the leaders of the Missouri outrages upon the Kansas 
elections ; still, if Kansas fairly votes herself a slave State she must 
be admitted, or the Union must be dissolved. But how if she votes 
herself a slave State unfairly, that is, by the very means for which you 
say you would hang men ? Must she still be admitted, or the Union 
dissolved f That will be the phase of the question when it first be- 
comes a practical one. In your assumption that there may be 
a fair decision of the slavery question in Kansas, I plainly see 
you and I would differ about the Nebraska law. I look upon that 
enactment not as a law, but as a violence from the beginning. It 
was conceived in violence, is maintained in violence, and is being 
executed in violence. I say it was conceived in violence, because the 
destruction of the Missouri Compromise, under the circumstances, 
was nothing less than violence. It was passed in violence, because 
it could not have passed at all but for the votes of many members 
in violence of the known will of their constituents. It is maintained 
in violence, because the elections since clearly demand its repeal ; 
and the demand is openly disregarded. 

You say men ought to be hung for the way they are executing 
the law ; I say the way it is being executed is quite as good as any 
of its antecedents. It is being executed in the precise way which 
was intended from the first, else why does no Nebraska man express 
astonishment or condemnation"? Poor Reeder is the only public 
man who has been silly enough to believe that anything like fair- 
ness was ever intended, and he has been bravely undeceived. 

That Kansas will form a slave constitution, and with it will ask to 
be admitted into the Union, I take to be already a settled question, 
and so settled by the very means you so pointedly condemn. By 
every principle of law ever held by any coiu't North or South, 
every negro taken to Kansas is free ; yet, in utter disregard of 
this, — in the spirit of violence merely, — that beautiful legislature 
gravely passes a law to hang any man who shall venture to inform 
a negi'O of his legal rights. This is the subject and real object of 
the law. K, like Haman, they should hang upon the gallows of 
their own building, I shall not be among the mourners for their 
fate. In my humble sphere, I shall advocate the restoration of the 
Missouri Compromise so long as Kansas remains a Territory, and 
when, by all these foul means, it seeks to come into the Union as a 
slave State, I shall oppose it. I am very loath in any case to with- 
hold my assent to the enjoyment of property acquired or located 
in good faith ; but I do not admit that good faith in taking a negro 
to Kansas to be held in slavery is a probability with any man. 
Any man who has sense enough to be the controller of his own 
property has too much sense to misunderstand the outrageous char- 
acter of the whole Nebraska business. But I digress. In my 
opposition to the admission of Kansas I shall have some company, 
but we may be beaten. If we are, I shall not on that account 
attempt to dissolve the Union. I think it probable, however, we 



218 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN 

shall be beaten. Standing as a unit among yourselves, you can, 
directly and indirectly, bribe enough of our men to cari-y the day, 
as you could on the open proposition to establish a monarchy. Get 
hold of some man in the North whose position and ability is such 
that he can make the support of your measure, whatever it may be, 
a Democratic party necessity, and the thing is done. Apropos of 
this, let me tell you an anecdote. Douglas introduced the Nebraska 
bill in January. In February afterward there was a called session 
of the Illinois legislature. Of the one hundred members compos- 
ing the two branches of that body, about seventy were Democrats. 
These latter held a caucus, in which the Nebraska bill was talked 
of, if not formally discussed. It was thereby discovered that just 
three, and no more, were in favor of the measure. In a day or two 
Douglas's orders came on to have resolutions passed approving the 
bUl ; and they were passed by large majorities ! ! ! The truth of this 
is vouched for by a bolting Democratic member. The masses, too, 
Democratic as well as Whig, were even nearer unanimous against 
it; but, as soon as the party necessity of supporting it became appa- 
rent, the way the Democrats began to see the wisdom and justice 
of it was perfectly astonishing. 

You say that if Kansas fairly votes herself a free State, as a 
Chi'istian you wUl rejoice at it. All decent slaveholders talk that 
way, and I do not doubt their candor. But they never vote that 
way. Although in a private letter or conversation you will express 
your preference that Kansas shall be free, you would vote for no 
man for Congress who would say the same thing publicly. No such 
man could be elected from any district in a slave State. You think 
Stringfellow and company ought to be hung ; and yet at the next 
presidential election you will vote for the exact type and represen- 
tative of Stringfellow. The slave-breeders and slave-traders are a 
small, odious, and detested class among you ; and yet in polities 
they dictate the course of all of you, and are as completely your 
masters as you are the master of your own negroes. You inquire 
where I now stand. That is a disputed point. I think I am a 
Whig; but others say there are no Whigs, and that I am an 
Abolitionist. When I was at Washington, I voted for the Wilmot 
proviso as good as forty times; and I never heard of any one 
attempting to unwhig me for that. I now do no more than op- 
pose the extension of slavery. I am not a Know-nothing; that 
is certain. How could I be? How can an 3' one who abhors the 
oppression of negroes be in favor of degrading classes of white 
people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty 
rapid. As a nation we began by declaring that " all men are created 
equal." We now practically read it " all men are created equal, 
except negroes." When the Know-nothings get control, it will read 
" all men are created equal, except negroes and foreigners and Cath- 
olics." When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some 
country where they make no pretense of loving liberty, — to Russia, 
for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the 
base alloy of hypocrisy. 

Mary will probably pass a day or two in Louisville in October. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 219 

My kindest regards to Mrs. Speed. On the leading subject of this 
letter, I have more of her sympathy than I have of yours ; and yet 
let me say I am Your friend forever, 

A. Lincoln, 

December [15?], 1855. — Bill for Services Rendered the 
Illinois Central Railroad Company. 

The Illinois Central Railroad Cojipany, 

To A. Lincoln Dr. 
To professional services in the case of the Illinois Central 
Railroad Company against the County of McLean, ar- 
gued in the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois at 

December term, 1855 $5000.00 

We, the undersigned members of the Illinois Bar, understanding 
that the above entitled cause was twice argued in the Supreme 
Court, and that the judgment therein decided the question of the 
claim of counties and other minor municipal corporations to tax 
the property of said railroad company, and settled said question 
against said claim and in favor of said railroad company, are of 
opinion the sum above charged as a fee is not unreasonable. 
Grant Goodrich, N. H. Purple, 

N. B. JuDD, O. H. Browning, 

Archibald Williams, R. S. Blackwell. 

June 27, 1856. — Letter to John Van Dyke. 

Springfield, Illinois, June 27, 1856. 
Hon. John Van Dyke. 

My dear Sir : Allow me to thank you for your kind notice of me 
in the Philadelphia Convention. 

When you meet Judge Dayton present my respects, and teU him 
I think him a far better man than I for the position he is in, and 
that I shall support both him and Colonel Fremont most cordially. 
Present my best respects to Mrs. Van Dyke, and believe me 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 

July 9, 1856.— Letter to Whitney. 

Springfield, July 9, 1856. 
Dear Whitney: I now expect to go to Chicago on the 15th, and I 
probably shall remain there or thereabouts for about two weeks. 

It turned me blind when I first heard Swett was beaten and Love- 
joy nominated ; but, after much reflection, I really believe it is best 
to let it stand. This, of course, I wish to be confidential. 

Lamon did get your deeds. I went with him to the office, got 
them, and put them in his hands myself. Yours very truly, 

A. Lincoln. 



220 ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN" 

August [1?J, 1856. — Fragment op Speech at Galena, Illinois, 

IN THE FrI^MONT CaMPAIC4N. 

You further charg:e us with being disunionists. If you mean that 
it is our aim to dissolve the Union, I for myself answer that it is un- 
true; for those who ac^t with me I answer that it is untrue. Have 
you heard us assert that as our aim ? Do you really believe that 
such is our aim ? Do you find it in our platform, our speeches, our 
conventions, or anywhere? If not, withdraw the charge. 

But you may say that though it is not our aim, it will be the 
result if we succeed, and that we are therefore disunionists in fact. 
This is a grave charge you make against us, and we certainly have 
a right to demand that' you specify in what way we are to dissolve 
the Union. How are we to effect this? 

The only specification offered is volunteered by Mr. Fillmore in 
Ids Albany speech. His charge is that if we elect a President and 
Vice-President both from the free States, it will dissolve the Union. 
This is open folly. The Constitution provides that the President 
and Vice-President of the United States shall be of different States ; 
but says nothing as to the latitude and longitude of those States. 
In 1828 Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, and John C. Calhoun, of 
South Carolina, were elected President and Vice-President, both 
from slave States ,• but no one thought of dissolving the Union then 
on that account. In 1840 Harrison, of Ohio, and Tyler, of Virginia, 
were elected. In 1841 Harrison died and John Tyler succeeded to 
the presidency, and William R. King, of Alabama, was elected acting 
Vice-President by the Senate; but no one supposed that the Union 
was in danger. In fact, at the very time Mr. Fillmoi-e uttered this 
idle charge, the state of things in the United States disproved it. 
Mr. Pierce, of New Hampshire, and Mr. Bright, of Indiana, both 
from free States, are President and Vice-President, and the IJnion 
stands and will stand. You do not pretend that it ought to dis- 
solve the Union, and the facts show that it won't; therefore the 
charge may be dismissed without further consideration. 

No other specification is made, and the only one that could be 
made is that the restoration of the restriction of 1820, making the 
United States territory free territory, would dissolve the Union. 
G-entlemen, it will require a decided majority to pass such an act. 
We, the majority, being able constitutionally to do all that we pur- 
pose, would have no desire to dissolve the Union. Do you say that 
such restriction of slavery would be unconstitutional, and that some 
of the States would not submit to its enforcement? I grant you 
that an unconstitutional act is not a law ; but I do not ask and will 
not take your construction of the Constitution. The Supreme Court 
of the United States is the tribunal to decide such a question, and 
we will submit to its decisions: and if you do also, there will be an 
end of the matter. Will you ? If not, who are the disunionists — you 
or we? We, the majority, would not strive to dissolve the Union; 
and if any attempt is made, it must be by you, who so loudly stig- 
matize us as disunionists. But the Union, in any event, will not be 
dissolved. We don't want to dissolve it, and if you attempt it we 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 221 

won't let you. With the purse and sword, the army and navy and 
treasury, in our hands and at our command, you could not do it. 
This government would be very weak indeed if a majority with a 
disciplined army and navy and a well-filled treasury could not pre- 
serve itself when attacked by an unarmed, undisciplined, unorgan- 
ized minority. All this talk about the dissolution of the Union is 
humbug, nothing but folly. We do not want to dissolve the Union ; 
you shall not. 

September 8, 1856. — Letter to Harrison Maltby. 

Confidential. 

Springfield, September 8, 1856. 
Harrison Maltby, Esq. 

Bear Sir: I understand you are a Fillmore man. Let me prove 
to you that every vote withheld from Fremont and given to Fill- 
more in this State actually lessens Fillmore's chance of being Presi- 
dent. Suppose Buchanan gets all the slave States and Pennsylva- 
nia, and any other one State besides ; then he is elected, no matter 
who gets all the rest. But suppose Fillmore gets the two slave 
States of Maryland and Kentucky; then Buchanan is not elected; 
Fillmore goes into the House of Representatives, and may be made 
President by a compromise. But suppose, again, Fillmore's friends 
throw away a few thousand votes on him in Indiana and Illinois; 
it will inevitably give these States to Buchanan, which will more 
than compensate him for the loss of Maryland and Kentucky, will 
elect him, and leave Filbnore no chance in the House of Represen- 
tatives or out of it. 

This is as plain as adding up the weight of three small hogs. As 
Mr. Fillmore has no possible chance to carry Illinois for himself, it 
is plainly to his interest to let Fremont take it, and thus keep it out 
of the hands of Buchanan. Be not deceived. Buchanan is the hard 
horse to beat in this race. Let him have Illinois, and nothing can 
beat him ; and he will get Illinois if men persist in throwing away 
votes upon Mr. Fillmore. Does some one persuade you that Mr. 
Fillmore can carry Illinois? Nonsense! There are over seventy 
newspapers in Illinois opposing Buchanan, only three or four of 
which support Mr. Fillmore, all the rest going for Fremont. Are 
not these newspapers a fair index of the proportion of the votes? 
If not, tell me why. 

Again, of these three or four Fillmore newspapers, two, at least, 
are supported in part by the Buchanan men, as I understand. Do 
not they know where the shoe pinches? They know the Fillmore 
movement helps them, and therefore they help it. Do think these 
things over, and then act according to your judgment. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 

October 1, 1856. — Fragment on Sectionalism. 

It is constantly objected to Fremont and Dayton, that they are 
supported by a sectional party, who by their sectionalism endanger 



222 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the national union. This objection, more than all others, causes 
men really opposed to slavery extension to hesitate. Practically, it 
is the most difficult objection we have to meet. For this reason I 
now propose to examine it a little more carefully than I have here- 
tofore done, or seen it done by others. First, then, what is the 
question between the parties respectively represented by Buchanan 
and Fremont ? Simply this, '' Shall slavery be allowed to extend 
into United States territories now legally free?" Buchanan says 
it shall, and Fremont says it shall not. 

That is the naked issue, and the whole of it. Lay the respective 
platforms side by side, and the diiference between them will bo 
found to amount to precisely that. True, each party charges upon 
the other designs much beyond what is involved in the issue as 
stated ; but as these chai'ges cannot be fully proved either way, it is 
probably better to reject them on both sides, and stick to the naked 
issue as it is clearly made up on the record. 

And now to restate the question, "Shall slavery be allowed to 
extend into United States territories now legally free ? " I beg to 
know how one side of that question is more sectional than the 
other? Of course I expect to effect nothing with the man who 
makes the charge of sectionalism without caring whether it is just 
or not. But of the candid, fair man who has been puzzled with this 
charge, I do ask how is one side of this question more sectional 
than the other ? I beg of him to consider well, and answer calmly. 

If one side be as sectional as the other, nothing is gained, as to 
sectionalism, by changing sides ; so that each must choose sides of 
the question on some other ground, as I should think, according as 
the one side or the other shall appear nearest right. If he shall 
really think slavery ought to be extended, let him go to Buchanan ; 
if he think it ought not, let him go to Fremont. 

But Fremont and Dayton are both residents of the free States, 
and this fact has been vaunted in high places as excessive sectional- 
ism. While interested individuals become indignant and excited 
against this manifestation of sectionalism, I am very happy to know 
that the Constitution remains calm — keeps cool — upon the subject. 
It does say that President and Vice-President shall be residents of 
different States, but it does not say that one must live in a slave 
and the other in a free State. 

It has been a custom to take one from a slave and the other from 
a free State ; but the custom has not at all been uniform. In 1828 
General Jackson and Mr. Calhoun, both from slave States, were 
placed on the same ticket; and Mr. Adams and Dr. Rush, both from 
free States, were pitted against them. General Jackson and Mr. 
Calhoun were elected, and qualified and served under the election, 
yet the whole thing never suggested the idea of sectionalism. In 
1841 the President, General Harrison, died, by which Mr. Tyler, 
the Vice-President and a slave-State man, became President. Mr. 
Mangum, another slave-State man, was placed in the vice-presiden- 
tial chair, served out the term, and no fuss about it, no sectionalism 
thought of. In 1853 the present President came into office. He is 
a free-State man. Mr. King, the new Vice-President elect, was a 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 223 

slave-State man ; but he died without entering on the duties of his 
office. At first his vacancy was filled by Atchison, another slave- 
State man ; but he soon resigned, and the place was supplied by 
Bright, a free-State man. So that right now, and for the half year 
last past, our President and Vice-President are both actually free- 
State men. But it is said the friends of Fremont avow the purpose 
:»f electing him exclusively by free-State votes, and that this is unen- 
durable sectionalism. 

This statement of fact is not exactly true. With the friends of 
Fremont it is an expected necessity, but it is not an " avowed pur- 
pose," to elect him, if at all, principally by free-State votes ; but it 
is with equal intensity true that Buchanan's friends expect to elect 
him, if at all, chiefly by slave-State votes. Here, again, the section- 
alism is just as much on one side as the other. 

The thing which gives most color to the charge of sectionalism, 
made against those who oppose the spread of slavery into free terri- 
tory, is the fact that they can get no votes in the slave States, while 
their opponents get all, or nearly so, in the slave States, and also a 
large nurnber in the free States. To state it in another way, the 
extensionists can get votes all over the nation, while the restric- 
tionists can get them only in the free States. 

This being the fact, why is it so ? It is not because one side of 
the question dividing them is more sectional than the other, nor 
because of any difference in the mental or moral structure of the 
people North and South. It is because in that question the people 
of the South have an immediate palpable and immensely great 
pecuniary interest^ while with the people of the North it is merely 
an abstract question of moral right, with only slight and remote 
pecuniary interest added. 

The slaves of the South, at a moderate estimate, are worth a thou- 
sand millions of dollars. Let it be permanently settled that this 
property may extend to new territory without restraint, and it 
gi-eatly enhances, perhaps quite doubles, its value at once. This im- 
mense palpable pecuniary interest on the question of extending sla- 
very unites the Southern people as one man. But it cannot be demon- 
strated that the North will gain a dollar by restricting it. Moral 
principle is aU, or nearly all, that unites us of the North. Pity 't is, 
it is so, but this is a looser bond than pecuniary interest. Right 
here is the plain cause of their perfect union and our want of it. 
And see how it works. If a Southern man aspires to be President, 
they choke him down instantly, in order that the glittering prize of 
the presidency may be held up on Southern terms to the greedy eyes 
of Northern ambition. With this they tempt us and break in upon us. 

The Democratic party in 1844 elected a Southern president. Since 
then they have neither had a Southern candidate for election nor 
nomination. Their conventions of 1848, 1852 and 1856 have been 
struggles exclusively among Northern men, each vying to outbid 
the other for the Southern vote ; the South standing calmly by to 
finally cry " Going, going, gone " to the highest bidder, and at the 
same time to make its power more distinctly seen, and thereby to 
secure a still higher bid at the next succeeding struggle. 



224 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

'' Actious speak louder than words" is the maxim, and if true the 
South now distinctly says to the North, " Give us the measures and 
you take the men." The total withdrawal of Southern aspirants 
for the presidency multiplies the number of Northern ones. These 
last, in competing with each other, commit themselves to the utmost 
verge that, through their own greediness, they have the least hope 
their Northern supporters will bear. Having got committed in a 
race of competition, necessity drives them into union to sustain 
themselves. Each at first secures all he can on personal attach- 
ments to him and through hopes resting on him personally. Next 
they unite with one another and with the perfectly banded South, 
to make the offensive position they have got into " a party measure." 
This done, large additional numbers are secured. 

When the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was fii'st proposed, 
at the North there was literally " nobody " in favor of it. In Feb- 
ruary, 1854, our legislatui'e met in called, or extra, session. From them 
Douglas sought an indorsement of his then pending measure of re- 
peal. In our legislature were about seventy Democrats to thirty 
Whigs. The former held a caucus, in which it was resolved to give 
Douglas the desired indorsement. Some of the members of the 
caucus bolted, — would not stand it, — and they now divulge the 
secrets. They say that the caucus fairly confessed that the repeal 
was wrong, and they pleaded the determination to indorse it solely on 
the ground that it was necessary to sustain Douglas. Here we have 
the direct evidence of how the Nebraska bill obtained its strength 
in Illinois. It was given, not in a sense of right, but in the teeth 
of a sense of wrong, to sustain Douglas. So Illinois was divided. 
So New England for Pierce, Michigan for Cass, Pennsylvania for 
Buchanan, and all for the Democratic party. 

And when by such means they have got a large portion of the 
Northern people into a position contrary to their own honest im- 
pulses and sense of right, they have the impudence to turn upon 
those who do stand firm, and call them sectional. Were it not too 
serious a matter, this cool impudence would be laughable, to say the 
least. Recurring to the question, " Shall slavery be allowed to extend 
into United States territory now legally free?" This is a sectional 
question — that is to say, it is a question in its nature calculated to 
divide the American people geographically. Who is to blame for that? 
Who can help it ? Either side can help it ; but how ? Simply by yield- 
ing to the other side; there is no other way; in the whole range of 
possibility there is no other way. Then, which side shall yield ? To 
this, again, there can be but one answer, — the side which is in the 
wrong. True, we differ as to which side is wrong, and we boldly 
say, let all who really think slavery ought to be spread into free ter- 
ritory, openly go over against us ; there is where they rightfully be- 
long. But why should any go who reaUy think slavery ought not 
to spread ? Do they really think the right ought to yield to the 
wrong? Are they afraid to stand by the right ? Do they fear that 
the Constitution is too weak to sustain them in the right? Do thej'' 
really think that by right surrendering to wrong the hopes of our 
Constitution, our Union, and our liberties can possibly be bettered ? 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 225 

December 10, 1856. — Fragment of Speech at a Republican 
Banquet in Chicago. 

We have another annual presidential message. Like a rejected 
lover making meriy at the wedding of his rival, the President felici- 
tates himself hugely over the late presidential election. He con- 
siders the result a signal triumph of good principles and good men, 
and a very pointed rebuke of bad ones. He says the people did it. 
He forgets that the " people," as he complacently calls only those 
who voted for Buchanan, are in a minority of the whole people by 
about four hundred thousand votes — one full tenth of all the votes. 
Remembering this, he might perceive that the ** rebuke " may not be 
quite as durable as he seems to think — that the majority may not 
choose to remain permanently rebuked by that minority. 

The President thinks the great body of us Fremouters, being 
ardently attached to liberty, in the abstract, were duped by a few 
wicked and designing men. There is a slight difference of opinion 
on this. We think he, being ardently attached to the hope of a 
second term, in the concrete, was duped by men who had liberty 
every way. He is the cat's-paw. By much dragging of chestnuts 
from the fire for others to eat, his claws are burnt off to the gristle, 
and he is thrown aside as unfit for further use. As the fool said of 
King Lear, when his daughters had turned him out of doors, " He 's 
a sheUed peascod" ["That 's a sheal'd peascod"]. 

So far as the President charges us '' with a desire to change 
the domestic institutions of existing States," and of '^ doing every- 
thing in our power to deprive the Constitution and the laws of 
moral authority," for the whole party on belief, and for myself on 
knowledge, I pronounce the charge an unmixed and unmitigated 
falsehood. 

Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change 
public opinion can change the government practically just so much. 
Public opinion, on any subject, always has a " central idea," from 
which all its minor thoughts radiate. That "central idea" in our 
political public opinion at the beginning was, and until recently has 
continued to be, " the equality of men." And although it has al- 
ways submitted patiently to whatever of inequality there seemed to 
be as matter of actual necessity, its constant working has been a 
steady progress toward the practical equality of all men. The late 
presidential election was a struggle by one party to discard that 
central idea and to substitute for it the opposite idea that slavery is 
right in the abstract, the workings of which as a central idea may 
be the perpetuity of human slavery and its extension to all countries 
and colors. Less than a year ago the Richmond " Enquirer," an 
avowed advocate of slavery, regardless of color, in order to favor 
his views, invented the phrase " State equality," and now the Presi- 
dent, in his message, adopts the " Enquirer's" catch-phrase, telling 
us the people "have asserted the constitutional equality of each and 
all of the States of the Union as States." The President flatters 
himself that the new central idea is completely inaugurated ; and so 
Vol. I.— 15. 



226 ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

indeed it is, so far as the mere fact of a presidential election can 
inaugurate it. To us it is left to know that the majority of the 
people have not yet declared for it, and to hope that they never will. 
All of us who did not vote for Mr. Buchanan, taken together, are a 
majority of four hundred thousand. But in the late contest we were 
divided between Fremont and Fillmore. Can we not come together 
for the future ? Let every one who really believes, and is resolved, 
that free society is not and shall not be a failure, and who can con- 
scientiously declare that in the past contest he has done only what 
he thought best — let every such one have charity to believe that 
every other one can say as much. Thus let bygones be bygones ; 
let past differences as nothing be ; and with steady eye on the real 
issue, let us reinaugurate the good old " central ideas " of the re- 
public. We can do it. The human heart is with us ; God is with 
us. "We shall again be able not to declare that " all States as States 
are equal," nor yet that "all citizens as citizens are equal," but to 
renew the broader, better declaration, including both these and 
much more, that " all men are created equal." 

June 26, 1857. — Speech in Springfield, Illinois. 

Fellow-citizens : I am here to-night, partly by the invitation of 
some of you, and partly by my own inclination. Two weeks ago 
Judge Douglas spoke here on the several subjects of Kansas, the 
Dred Scott decision, and Utah. I listened to the speech at the time, 
and have the report of it since. It was intended to controvert 
opinions which I think just, and to assail (politically, not personally) 
those men who, in common "wdth me, entertain those opinions. For 
this reason I wished then, and still wish, to make some answer to it, 
which I now take the opportunity of doing. 

I begin with Utah. If it prove to be true, as is probable, that the 
people of Utah are in open rebellion to the United States, then 
Judge Douglas is in favor of repealing their territorial organiza- 
tion, and attaching them to the adjoining States for judicial pur- 
poses. I say, too, if they are in rebellion, they ought to be some- 
how coerced to obedience ; and I am not now prepared to admit or 
deny that the judge's mode of coercing them is not as good as any. 
The Republicans can fall in mth it without taking back anything 
they have ever said. To be sure, it would be a considerable back- 
ing down by Judge Douglas from his much-vaunted doctrine of 
self-government for the Territories; but this is only additional 
proof of what was very plain from the beginning, that that doctrine 
was a mere deceitful pretense for the benefit of slavery. Those 
who could not see that much in the Nebraska act itself, which forced 
governors, and secretaries, and judges on the people of the Terri- 
tories without their choice or consent, could not be made to see, 
though one should rise from the dead. 

But in all this, it is very plain the judge evades the only question 
the Republicans have ever pressed upon the Democracy in regard 
to Utah. That question the judge well knew to be this : "If the 
people of Utah shaU peacefully form a State constitution tolerating 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 227 

polygamy, will the Democracy admit them into the Union ? " There 
is nothing in the United States Constitution or law against polyg- 
amy ; and why is it not a part of the judge's '* sacred right of self- 
government " for the people to have it, or rather to keep it, if they 
choose ? These questions, so far as I know, the judge never answers. 
It might involve the Democracy to answer them either way, and 
they go unanswered. 

As to Kansas. The substance of the judge's speech on Kansas is 
an effort to put the free-State men in the wrong for not voting at 
the election of delegates to the constitutional convention. He says : 
"There is every reason to hope and believe that the law will be fairly 
interpreted and impartially executed, so as to insure to every bona 
fide inhabitant the free and quiet exercise of the elective franchise." 

It appears extraordinary that Judge Douglas should make such a 
statement. He knows that, by the law, no one can vote who has 
not been registered ; and he knows that the free-State men place 
their refusal to vote on the ground that but few of them have been 
registered. It is possible that this is not true, but Judge Douglas 
knows it is asserted to be true in letters, newspapers, and public 
speeches, and borne by every mail and blown by every breeze to 
the eyes and ears of the world. He knows it is boldly declared that 
the people of many whole counties, and many whole neighborhoods 
in others, are left unregistered ; yet he does not venture to con- 
tradict the declaration, or to point out how they can vote without 
being registered ; but he just slips along, not seeming to know there 
is any such question of fact, and complacently declares : " There is 
every reason to hope and believe that the law will be fairly and im- 
partially executed, so as to insure to every bona fide inhabitant the 
fi'ee and quiet exercise of the elective fi-anchise." 

I readily agree that if all had a chance to vote, they ought to have 
voted. If, on the contrary, as they allege, and Judge Douglas 
ventures not to particularly contradict, few only of the free-State 
men had a chance to vote, they were perfectly right in staying fi-om 
the polls in a body. 

By the way, since the judge spoke, the Kansas election has come 
off. The judge expressed his confidence that all the Democrats in 
Kansas would do their duty — including '^ free-State Democrats," of 
course. The returns received here as yet are very incomplete ; but 
so far as they go, they indicate that only about one sixth of the re- 
gistered voters have really voted ; and this, too, when not more, per- 
haps, than one half of the rightful voters have been registered, thus 
showing the thing to have been altogether the most exquisite farce 
ever enacted. I am watching with considerable interest to ascer- 
tain what figure "the free-State Democrats" cut in the concern. 
Of course they voted, — all Democrats do their duty, — and of course 
they did not vote for slave-State candidates. We soon shall know 
how many delegates they elected, how many candidates they had 
pledged to a free State, and how many votes were cast for them. 

Allow me to barely whisper my suspicion that there were no such 
things in Kansas as "free-State Democrats" — that they were alto- 
gether mythical, good onty to figure in newspapers and speeches in 



228 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the free States. If there should prove to be one real living free- 
State Democrat in Kansas, I suggest that it might be well to catch 
him, and stuff and preserve his skin as an interesting specimen of 
that soon-to-be-extinct variety of the genus Democrat. 

And now as to the Dred Scott decision. That decision declares 
two propositions — first, that a negro cannot sue in the United States 
courts ; and secondly, that Congress cannot prohibit slavery in the 
Territories. It was made by a divided court — dividing differently 
on the different points. Judge Douglas does not discuss the merits 
of the decision, and in that respect I shall follow his example, be- 
lieving I could no more improve on McLean and Curtis than he 
could on Taney. 

He denounces aU who question the correctness of that decision, 
as offering violent resistance to it. But who resists it? Who has, 
in spite of the decision, declared Dred Scott free, and resisted the 
authority of his master over him ? 

Judicial decisions have two uses — first, to absolutely determine 
the case decided; and secondly, to indicate to the public how other 
similar cases will be decided when they arise. For the latter use, 
they are called " precedents " and " authorities." 

We believe as much as Judge Douglas (perhaps more) in obedi- 
ence to, and respect for, the judicial department of government. 
We think its decisions on constitutional questions, when fully set- 
tled, should control not only the particular cases decided, but the 
general policy of the country, subject to be disturbed only by 
amendments of the Constitution as provided in that instrument it- 
self. More than this would be revolution. But we think the Dred 
Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court that made it has 
often oveiTuled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to 
have it to overrule this. We offer no resistance to it. 

Judicial decisions are of greater or less authority as precedents 
according to circumstances. That this should be so accords both 
with common sense and the customary understanding of the legal 
profession. 

K this important decision had been made by the unanimous eon- 
cuiTcnce of the judges, and without any apparent partizan bias, and 
in accordance with legal public expectation and with the steady 
practice of the departments throughout our history, and had been 
in no part based on assumed historical facts which are not really 
true ; or, if wanting in some of these, it had been before the court 
more than once, and had there been affirmed and reaffirmed through 
a course of years, it then might be, perhaps would be, factious, nay, 
even revolutionary, not to acquiesce in it as a precedent. 

But when, as is true, we find it wanting in all these claims to the 
public confidence, it is not resistance, it is not factious, it is not even 
disrespectful, to treat it as not having yet quite established a settled 
doctrine for the country. But Judge Douglas considers this view 
awful. Hear him : 

The courts aio llie tribunals prescribed by the Constitution and created 
by the authority of the people to determine, expound, and enforce the law. 
lienee, whoever resists the final decision of the highest judicial tribunal 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 229 

aims a deadly blow at our whole republican system of government — a 
blow which, if successful, would place all oxxr rights and liberties at the 
mercy of passion, anarchy, and violence. I repeat, therefore, that if re- 
sistance to the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, in a 
matter like the points decided in the Dred Scott case, clearly within their 
jurisdiction as defined by the Constitution, shall be forced upon the country 
as a political issue, it will become a distinct and naked issue between the 
friends and enemies of the Constitution — the friends and the enemies of the 
supremacy of the laws. 

Why, this same Supreme Court once decided a national bank to be 
constitutional; but General Jackson, as President of the United 
States, disregarded the decision, and vetoed a bill for a recharter, 
partly on constitutional ground declaring that each public function- 
ary must support the Constitution, " as he understands it." But hear 
the general's own words. Here they are, taken from his veto message : 

It is maintained by the advocates of the bank, that its constitutionality, 
in all its features, ought to be considered as settled by precedent, and by 
the decision of the Supreme Court. To this conclusion I cannot assent. 
Mere precedent is a dangerous source of authority, and should not be re- 
garded as deciding questions of constitutional power, except where the 
acquiescence of the people and the States can be considered as well settled. 
So far from this being the case on this subject, an argument against the 
bank might be based on precedent. One Congress, in 1791, decided in fa- 
vor of a bank ; another, in 1811, decided against it. One Congress, in 1815, 
decided against a bank ; another, in 1816, decided in its favor. Prior to 
the present Congress, therefore, the precedents di-awn from that source 
were equal. If we resort to the States, the expressions of legislative, 
judicial, and executive opinions against the bank have been probably to 
those in its favor as four to one. There is nothing in precedent, therefore, 
which, if its authority were admitted, ought to weigh in favor of the act 
before me. 

I drop the quotations merely to remark that all there ever was in 
the way of precedent up to the Dred Scott decision, on the points 
therein decided, had been against that decision. But hear General 
Jackson further : 

If the opinion of the Supreme Cotirt covered the whole gi'ound of this 
act, it ought not to control the coordinate authorities of this government. 
The Congress, the executive, and the court must, each for itself, be guided 
by its own opinion of the Constitution. Each public oflScer who takes an 
oath to support the Constitution swears that he wiU support it as he under- 
stands it, and not as it is imderstood by others. 

Again and again have I heard Judge Douglas denounce that bank 
decision and applaud General Jackson for disregarding it. It would 
be interesting for him to look over his recent speech, and see how 
exactly his fierce philippics against us for resisting Supreme Court 
decisions fall upon his own head. It wiU call to mind a long 
and fierce political war in this countiy, upon an issue which, in his 
own language, and, of course, in his own changeless estimation, was 
** a distinct issue between the friends and the enemies of the Consti- 
tution," and in which war he fought in the ranks of the enemies of 
the Constitution. 



230 ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I have said, in substance, that the Dred Scott decision was in part 
based on assumed historical facts which were not really true, and I 
ought not to leave the subject without giving some reasons for say- 
ing this; I therefore give an instance or two, which I think fully 
sustain me. Chief Justice Taney, in delivering the opinion of the 
majority of the court, insists at great length that negroes were 
no part of the people who made, or for whom was made, the Declara- 
tion of Independence, or the Constitution of the United States. 

On the contrary. Judge Curtis, in his dissenting opinion, shows 
that in five of the then thirteen States — to wit. New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and North Carolina — free 
negroes were voters, and in proportion to their numbers had the 
same part in making the Constitution that the white people had. 
He shows this with so much particularity as to leave no doubt of 
its truth ; and as a sort of conclusion on that point, holds the fol- 
lowing language : 

The Constitution was ordained and established by the people of the 
United States, through the action, in each State, of those persons who were 
quahfied by its laws to act thereon in behalf of themselves and all other citi- 
zens of the State. In some of the States, as we have seen, colored persons 
were among those qualified by law to act on the subject. These colored 
persons were not only included in the body of ''the people of the United 
States " by whom the Constitution was ordained and estabhshed ; but in at 
least five of the States they had the power to act, and doubtless did act, by 
their suffrages, upon the question of its adoption. 

Again, Chief Justice Taney says : 

It is difficult at this day to reahze the state of pubhc opinion, in relation 
to that unfortunate race, which prevailed in the civihzed and enhghtened 
portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of Independence, and 
when the Constitution of the United States was framed and adopted. 

And again, after quoting from the Declaration, he says : 

The genei'al words above quoted would seem to include the whole hu- 
man family, and if they were used in a similar instrument at this day, 
would be so understood. 

In these the Chief Justice does not directly assert, but plainly as- 
sumes, as a fact, that the public estimate of the black man is more 
favorable now than it was in the days of the Revolution. This as- 
sumption is a mistake. In some trifling particulars the condition of 
that race has been ameliorated; but as a whole, in this countr}'', the 
change between then and now is decidedly the other way; and their 
ultimate destiny has never appeared so hopeless as in the last three 
or four years. In two of the five States — New Jersey and North 
Carolina — that then gave the free negro the right of voting, the 
right has since been taken away, and in a third — New York — it 
has been greatly abridged; while it has not been extended, so far as 
I know, to a single additional State, though the number of the States 
has more than doubled. In those days, as I understand, masters 
could, at their own pleasure, emancipate their slaves ; but since then 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 231 

such legal restraints have been made upon emancipation as to 
amount almost to prohibition. In those days legislatures held the 
unquestioned power to abolish slavery in their respective States, but 
now it is becoming quite fashionable for State constitutions to with- 
hold that power from the legislatures. In those days, by common 
consent, the spread of the black man's bondage to the new countries 
was prohibited, but now Congress decides that it will not continue 
the prohibition, and the Supreme Court decides that it could not if 
it would. In those days our Declaration of Independence was held 
sacred by all, and thought to include all; but now, to aid in making 
the bondage of the negro universal and eternal, it is assailed and 
sneered at and construed, and hawked at and torn, tUl, if its framers 
could rise from their graves, they could not at aU recognize it. All 
the powers of earth seem rapidly combining against him. Mammon 
is after him, ambition follows, philosophy follows, and the theology 
of the day is fast joining the cry. They have him in his prison- 
house ; they have searched his person, and left no prying instrument 
with him. One after another they have closed the heavy iron doors 
upon him ; and now they have him, as it were, bolted in with a 
lock of a hundred keys, which can never be unlocked without the 
concurrence of every key — the keys in the hands of a hundred differ- 
ent men, and thej' scattered to a hundred different and distant 
places; and they stand musing as to what invention, in all the do- 
minions of mind and matter, can be produced to make the impossi- 
bility of his escape more complete than it is. 

It is gi'ossly incorrect to say or assume that the public estimate 
of the negro is more favorable now than it was at the origin of the 
government. 

Three years and a half ago, Judge Douglas brought forward his 
famous Nebraska bill. The country was at once in a blaze. He 
scorned all opposition, and carried it through Congress. Since then 
he has seen himself superseded in a presidential nomination by one 
indorsing the general doctrine of his measure, but at the same time 
standing clear of the odium of its untimely agitation and its gross 
breach of national faith; and he has seen that successful rival con- 
stitutionally elected, not by the strength of friends, but by the divis- 
ion of adversaries, being in a popular minority of nearly four hundred 
thousand votes. He has seen his chief aids in his own State, Shields 
and Richardson, politically speaking, successively tried, convicted, 
and executed for an offense not their own, but his. And now he 
sees his own case standing next on the docket for trial. 

There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people 
at the idea of an indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black 
races; and Judge Douglas evidently is basing his chief hope upon 
the chances of his being able to appropriate the benefit of this dis- 
gust to himself. If he can, by much drumming and repeating, fasten 
the odium of that idea upon his adversaries, he thinks he can struggle 
through the storm. He therefore clings to this hope, as a drowning 
man to the last plank. He makes an occasion for lugging it in fi*om 
the opposition to the Dred Scott decision. He finds tne Republicans 
insisting that the Declaration of Independence includes all men, 



232 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

black as well as white, and forthwith he boldly denies that it includes 
negroes at all, and proceeds to argue gravely that all who contend it 
does, do so only because they want to vote, and eat, and sleep, and 
marry with negroes! He will have it that they cannot be consistent 
else. Now I protest against the counterfeit logic which concludes 
that, because I do not want a black woman for a slave I must neces- 
sarily want her for a wife. I need not have her for either. I can just 
leave her alone. In some respects she certainly is not my equal; but 
in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands 
without asking leave of any one else, she is my equal, and the equal 
of all others. 

Chief Justice Taney, in his opinion in the Dred Scott case, admits 
that the language of the Declaration is broad enough to include the 
whole human family, but he and Judge Douglas argue that the au- 
thors of that instrument did not intend to include negroes, by the 
fact that they did not at once actually place them on an equality with 
the whites. Now this grave argument comes to just nothing at all, 
by the other fact that they did not at once, or ever afterward, actu- 
ally place all white people on an equality with one another. And 
this is the staple argument of both the chief justice and the senator 
for doing this obvious violence to the plain, unmistakable language 
of the Declaration. 

I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include 
all men, but they did not intend to declare all men equal in all re- 
spects. They did not mean to say all were equal in color, size, intel- 
lect, moral developments, or social capacity. They defined with 
tolerable distinctness in what respects they did consider all men 
created equal — equal with " certain inalienable rights, among which 
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This they said, and 
this they meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth 
that all were then actually enjoying that equality, nor yet that they 
were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had 
no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the 
right, so that enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances 
should permit. 

They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which 
should be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, 
constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, 
constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and 
deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of 
life to aU people of all colors everywhere. The assertion that " all 
men are created equal" was of no practical use in effecting our sepa- 
ration from Great Britain ; and it was placed in the Declaration not 
for that, but for future use. Its authors meant it to be — as, thank 
God, it is now proving itself — a stumbling-block to all those who 
in after times might seek to turn a free people back into the hateful 
paths of despotism. They knew the proneness of prosperity to breed 
tyrants, and they meant when such should reappear in this fair land 
and commence their vocation, they should find left for them at least 
one hard nut to crack, 

I have now briefly expressed my view of the meaning and object 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 233 

of that part of the Declaration of Independence which declai'es that 
"all men are created equal." 

Now let us hear Judge Douglas's view of the same subject, as I 
find it in the printed report of his late speech. Here it is : 

No man can vindicate the character, motives, and conduct of the signers 
of the Declaration of Independence, except upon the hj'pothesis that they 
referred to the white race alone, and not to the African, when they de- 
clared all men to have been created equal ; that they were speaking of 
British subjects on this continent being equal to British subjects born and 
residing in Great Britain ; that they were entitled to the same inalienable 
rights, and among them were enumerated life, hberty, and the pursvdt of 
happiness. The Declaration was adopted for the purpose of justif jHng the 
colonists in the eyes of the civUized world in withdrawing then' alle- 
giance from the British crown, and dissolving their connection with the 
mother country. 

My good friends, read that carefully over some leisure hour, and 
ponder well upon it; see what a mere wreck — mangled ruin — it 
makes of our once glorious Declaration. 

''They were speaking of British subjects on this continent being 
equal to British subjects born and residing in Great Britain ! " Why, 
according to this, not only negroes but white people outside of Great- 
Britain and America were not spoken of in that instrument. The 
English, Irish, and Scotch, along with white Americans, were included, 
to be sure, but the French, Germans, and other white people of the 
world are aU gone to pot along with the judge's inferior races ! 

I had thought the Declaration promised something better than the 
condition of British subjects; but no, it only meant that we should 
be equal to them in their own oppressed and unequal condition. Ac- 
cording to that, it gave no promise that, having kicked off the king 
and lords of Great Britain, we should not at once be saddled with a 
king and lords of our own. 

I had thought the Declaration contemplated the progressive im- 
provement in the condition of all men everywhere ; but no, it merely 
" was adopted for the purpose of justifying the colonists in the 
ej'es of the civilized world in withdrawing their alle^ance from the 
British crown, and dissolving their connection with the mother 
country." Why, that object having been effected some eighty years 
ago, the Declaration is of no practical use now — mere rubbish — old 
wadding left to rot on the battle-field after the victory is won. 

I understand you are preparing to celebrate the "Fourth," to- 
morrow week. What for? The doings of that day had no reference 
to the present ; and quite half of you are not even descendants of 
those who were referred to at that day. But I suppose you will cele- 
brate, and will even go so far as to read the Declaration. Suppose, 
after you read it once in the old-fashioned way, you read it once 
more with Judge Douglas's version. It will then run thus: "We 
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all British subjects who were 
on this continent eighty-one years ago, were created equal to all Brit- 
ish subjects born and then residing in Great Britain." 

And now I appeal to all — to Democrats as weU as others — are you 
really willing that the Declaration shall thus be frittered away! — 



234 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

thus left no more, at most, than an interesting memorial of the 
dead past? — thus shorn of its vitality and practical value, and left 
without the germ or even the suggestion of the individual rights of 
man in it? 

But Judge Douglas is especially horrified at the thought of the 
mixing of blood by the white and black races. Agreed for once — 
a thousand times agreed. There are white men enough to marry 
all the white women, and black men enough to marry all the black 
women ; and so let them be married. On this point we fully agree 
with the judge, and when he shall show that his policy is better 
adapted to prevent amalgamation than ours, we shall drop ours and 
adopt his. Let us see. In 1850 there were in the United States 
405,751 mulattos. Very few of these are the offspring of whites and 
free blacks; nearly all have sprung from black slaves and white 
masters. A separation of the races is the onlj^ perfect preventive of 
amalgamation ; but as an immediate separation is impossible, the 
next best thing is to keep them apart where they are not already to- 
gether. If white and black people never get together in Kansas, they 
will never mix blood in Kansas. That is at least one self-evident 
truth. A few free colored persons may get into the free States, in 
any event ; but their number is too insignificant to amount to much 
in the way of mixing blood. In 1850 there were in the free States 
56,649 mulattos; but for the most part they were not born there — 
they came from the slave States, ready made up. In the same year 
the* slave States had 348,874 mulattos, all of home production. The 
proportion of free mulattos to free blacks — the only colored classes 
in the free States — is much greater in the slave than in the free 
States. It is worthy of note, too, that among the free States those 
which make the colored man the nearest equal to the white have 
proportionabl}' the fewest mulattos, the least of amalgamation. In 
New Hampshire, the State which goes farthest toward equality be- 
tween the races, there are just 184 mulattos, while there are in Vir- 
ginia — how many do you think? — 79,775, being 23,126 more than in 
all the free States together. 

These statistics show that slavery is the greatest source of amal- 
gamation, and next to it, not the elevation, but the degradation of the 
free blacks. Yet Judge Douglas dreads the slightest restraints on 
the spread of slavery, and the slightest human recognition of the 
negro, as tending horribly to amalgamation. 

The very Dred Scott case affords a strong test as to which party 
most favors amalgamation, the Republicans or the dear Union-sav- 
ing Democracy. Dred Scott, his wife, and two daughters were all 
involved in the suit. We desired the court to have held that they were 
citizens so far at least as to entitle them to a. hearing as to whether 
they were free or not; and then, also, that they were in fact and in 
law really free. Could we have had our way, the chances of these 
black girls ever mixing their blood with that of white people would 
have been diminished at least to the extent that it could not have 
been without their consent. But Judge Douglas is delighted to have 
them decided to be slaves, and not human enough to have a hearing, 
even if they were free, and thus left subject to the forced concubinage 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 235 

of their masters, and liable to become the mothers of mulattos in 
spite of themselves : the very state of case that produces nine tenths 
of all the mulattos — all the mixing of blood in the nation. 

Of course, I state this case as an illustration only, not meaning to 
say or intimate that the master of Dred Scott and his family, or any 
more than a percentage of masters generally, are inclined to exer- 
cise this particular power which they hold over their female slaves. 

I have said that the separation of the races is the only perfect 
preventive of amalgamation. I have no right to say all the mem- 
bers of the Republican party are in favor of this, nor to say that as 
a party they are in favor of it. There is nothing in their platform 
directly on the subject. But I can say a very large proportion of 
its members are for it, and that the chief plank in their platform 
— opposition to the spread of slavery — is most favorable to that 
separation. 

Such separation, if ever effected at all, must be effected by colon- 
ization; and no political party, as such, is now doing anything 
directly for colonization. Party operations at present only favor or 
retard colonization incidentally. The enterprise is a difficult one; 
but " where there is a will there is a way," and what colonization 
needs most is a hearty will. Will springs from the two elements of 
moral sense and self-interest. Let us be brought to believe it is 
morally right, and at the same time favorable to, or at least not 
against, our interest to transfer the African to his native clime, and 
we shall find a way to do it, however great the task may be. The 
children of Israel, to such numbers as to include four hundred 
thousand fighting men, went out of Egyptian bondage in a body. 

How differently the respective courses of the Democratic and Re- 
publican parties mcidentally bear on the question of forming a will 
— a public sentiment — for colonization, is easy to see. The Repub- 
licans inculcate, with whatever of ability they can, that the negro is 
a man, that his bondage is cruelly wrong, and that the field of his 
oppression ought not to be enlarged. The Democrats deny his 
manhood ; deny, or dwarf to insignificance, the wrong of his bon- 
dage ; so far as possible, crush all sympathy for him, and cultivate 
and excite hatred and disgust against him ; compliment themselves 
as Union-savers for doing so ; and call the indefinite outspreading 
of his bondage " a sacred right of self-government." 

The plainest print cannot be read through a gold eagle ; and it 
will be ever hard to find many men who will send a slave to Liberia, 
and pay his passage, while they can send him to a new country — 
Kansas, for instance — and sell him for fifteen hundred dollars, and 
the rise. 

April 26, 1858.— Letter to E. B. Washburne. 

Urbana, Illinois, April 26, 1858. 
Hon. E. B. Washburne. 

My clear Sir : I am rather a poor correspondent, but I think per- 
haps I ought to write you a letter just now. I am here at this time, 
but I was at home during the sitting of the two Democratic conven- 



236 ADDEESSES AND LETTEES OP ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

tions. The day before those conventions I received a letter from 
Chicago, having among other things on other subjects the follow- 
ing in it : 

A reliable Republican, but an old-line Whig lawyer, in this city told me 
to-day that he himself had seen a letter from one of our Republican con- 
gressmen, advising us all to go for the reelection of Judge Douglas. He 
said he was enjoined to keep the author a secret, and he was going to do so. 
From him I learned that he was not an old-line Democrat or Abohtionist. 
This narrows the contest down to the congressmen from the Galena and 
Fulton districts. 

The above is a literal copy of all the letter contained on that sub- 
ject. The morning of the conventions, Mr. Herndon showed me 
your letter of the 15th to him, which convinced me that the story 
in the letter from Chicago was based upon some mistake, miscon- 
struction of language, or the like. Several of our friends were 
down from Chicago, and they had something of the same story 
amongst them, some half suspecting that you were inclined to favor 
Douglas, and others thinking there was an effort to wrong you. 

I thought neither was exactly the case ; that the whole had origi- 
nated in some misconstruction coupled with a high degree of sensi- 
tiveness on the point, and that the whole matter was not worth 
another moment's consideration. 

Such is my opinion now, and I hope you wiU have no concern 
about it. I have written this because Charley Wilson told me he 
was writing you, and because I expect Dr. Ray (who was a little 
excited about the matter) has also written you -, and because I think 
I, perhaps, have taken a calmer view of the thing than they may 
have done. I am satisfied you have done no wrong, and nobody 
has intended any wrong to you. 

A word about the conventions. The Democracy parted in not a 

very encouraged state of mind. On the contrary, our friends, a good 

many of whom were present, parted in high spirits. They think if 

we do not triumph, the fault will be our own, and so I really think. 

Your friend as ever, A. Lincoln. 



May 10, 1858.— Letter to J. M. Lucas. 

Springfield, May 10, 1858. 
J. M. Lucas, Esq. 

My dear Sir : Your long and kind letter was received to-day. It 
came upon me as an agreeable old acquaintance. Politically speak- 
ing, there is a curious state of things here. The impulse of almost 
every Democrat is to stick to Douglas ; but it horrifies them to have 
to follow him out of the Democratic party. A good many are an- 
noyed that he did not go for the English contrivance, and thus heal 
the breach. They begin to think there is a " negro in the fence," — 
that Douglas really wants to have a fuss with the President; — that 
sticks in their throats. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 



ADDBESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 237 

May 10, 1858.— Letter to E. B. Washburne. 

Springfield, Illinois, May 10, 1858. 
Hon. E. B. Washburne. 

My dear Sir: I have just reached home from the circuit, and 
found your letter of the 2d, for which I thank you. My other 
letter to you was meant for nothing but to hedge against bad feel- 
ing being gotten up between those who ought to be friends, out of 
the incident mentioned in that letter. I sent you an extract from 
the Chicago letter in order to let you see that the writer did not pro- 
fess to know anything himself ; and I now add that his informant 
told me that he did tell him exactly what he wrote me — at least 
I distinctly so understood him. The informant is an exceedingly 
clever fellow ; and I think he, having had a hasty glance at your 
letter to Charley Wilson, misconstrued it, and consequently misre- 
ported it to the writer of the letter to me. I must repeat that I 
think the thing did not originate in malice to you, or to any one, 
and that the best way all round is to now forget it entirely. Will 
you not adjourn in time to be here at oui- State convention m June? 
Your friend as ever, A. Lincoln. 

May 15, 1858. — Letter to E. B. Washburne. 

Springfield, May 15, 1858. 
Hon. E. B. Washburne. 

My dear Sir : Yours of the 6th, accompanied by yours of April 
12th to C. L. Wilson, was received day before yesterday. There 
certainly is nothing in the letter to Wilson which I in particular, or 
Republicans in general, could complain of. Of that I was quite sat- 
isfied before I saw the letter. I believe there has been no malicious 
intent to misrepresent you ; I hope there is no longer any misunder- 
standing, and that the matter may drop. 

Eight or ten days ago I wrote Kellogg from Beardstown. Get 
him to show you the letter. It gave my view of the field as it ap- 
peared then. Nothing has occurred since, except that it grows more 
and more quiet since the passage of the English contrivance. 

The "State Register" here is evidently laboring to bring its old 
friends into what the doctors call the "comatose state," — that is, a 
sort of drowsy, dreamy condition, in which they may not perceive or 
remember that there has ever been, or is, any difference between 
Douglas and the President. This could be done if the Buchanan 
men would allow it — which, however, the latter seem determined 
not to do. 

I think our prospects gradually and steadily grow better, though 
we are not yet clear out of the woods by a great deal. There is 
still some effort to make trouble out of "Americanism." If that 
were out of the way, for all the rest, I believe we should be " out of 
the woods." Youi^s very truly, 

A. Lincoln. 



238 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



May 27, 1858. — Letter to E. B. Washburne. 

Springfield, May 27, 1858. 
Hon. E. B. Washburne. 

3Iy dear Sir : Yours requesting me to return you the now some- 
what noted " Charley Wilson letter," is received, and I herewith 
return that letter. Political matters just now bear a very mixed 
and incongruous aspect. For several days the signs have been that 
Douglas and the President have probably buried the hatchet, — 
Douglas's friends at Washington going over to the President's side, 
and his friends here and South of here talking as if there never had 
been any serious difficulty, while the President himself does nothing 
for his own peculiar friends here. But this morning my partner, 
Mr. Hemdon, receives a letter from Mr. Medill of the ^* Chicago 
Tribune," showing the writer to be in great alarm at the prospect 
North of Republicans going over to Douglas, on the idea that 
Douglas is going to assume steep Free-soil ground, and furiously 
assail the administration on the stump when he comes home. There 
certainly is a double game being played somehow. Possibly — even 
probably — Douglas is temporarily deceiving the President in order 
to crush out the 8th of June convention here. Unless he plays his 
double game more successfully than we have often seen done, he 
cannot cany many Republicans North, without at the same time 
losing a larger number of his old friends South. Let this be con- 
fidential. Yours as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 



June 1, 1858.— Letter to Charles L.Wilson. 

Springfield, June 1, 1858. 
Charles L. Wilson, Esq. 

My dear Sir : Yours of yesterday, with the inclosed newspaper 
slip, is received. I have never said or thought more, as to the incli- 
nation of some of our Eastern Republican friends to favor Douglas, 
than I expressed in your hearing on the evening of the 21st of 
April, at the State library in this place. I have believed — I do 
believe now — that Greeley, for instance, would be rather pleased to 
see Douglas reelected over me or any other Republican ; and yet I 
do not believe it is so because of any secret arrangement with Doug- 
las. It is because he thinks Douglas's superior position, reputation, 
experience, ability, if you please, would more than compensate for 
his lack of a pure Republican position, and therefore his reelection 
do the general cause of Republicanism more good than would the 
election of any one of our better undistinguished pure Republicans. 
I do not know how you estimate Greeley, but I consider him incapable 
of corruption or falsehood. He denies that he directly is taking part 
in favor of Douglas, and I believe him. Still his feeling constantly 
manifests itself in his paper, which, being so extensively read in 
Illinois, is, and will continue to be, a drag upon us. I have also 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LmCOLN 239 

thought that Governor Seward, too, feels about as Greeley does, but 
not being a newspaper editor, his feeling in this respect is not much 
manifested. I have no idea that he is, by conversation or by letter, 
urging Illinois Republicans to vote for Douglas. 

As to myself, let me pledge you my word that neither I, nor any 
friend so far as I know, has been setting stake against Governor 
Seward. No combination has been made with me, or proposed to 
me, in relation to the next presidential candidate. The same thing 
is true in regard to the next governor of our State. I am not 
directly or indirectly committed to any one, nor has any one made 
any advance to me upon the subject. I have had many free con- 
versations with John Wentworth; but he never dropped a remark 
that led me to suspect that he wishes to be governor. Indeed, it is 
due to truth to say that while he has uniformly expressed himself 
for me, he has never hinted at any condition. 

The signs are that we shall have a good convention on the 16th 
and I think our prospects generally are improving some every 
day. I believe we need nothing so much as to get rid of unjust 
suspicions of one another. Yours very truly, 

A. Lincoln. 



June 15, 1858. — Notes of Argument in Law Case. 

Legislation and adjudication must follow and conform to the 
progress of society. The progress of society now begins to produce 
cases of the transfer for debts of the entire property of railroad cor- 
porations ; and to enable transferees to use and enjoy the trans- 
ferred property, legislation and adjudication begin to be necessary. 
Shall this class of legislation just now beginning with us be general 
or special ? Section ten of our Constitution requires that it should 
be general, if possible. [Read the section.] Special legislation al- 
ways trenches upon the judicial department, and in so far violates 
section two of the Constitution. [Read it.] 

Just reasoning — policy — is in favor of general legislation, else 
the legislature will be loaded down with the investigation of smaller 
cases — a work which the courts ought to perform, and can perform 
much more perfectly. How can the legislature rightly decide the 
facts between P. and B. and S. C. and Co. 

It is said that under a general law, whenever a railroad company 
gets tired of its debts it may transfer fraudulently to get rid of 
them. So they may — so may individuals; and which, the legis- 
lature or the courts, is best suited to try the question of fraud in 
either case ■? 

It is said, if a purchaser have acquired legal rights, let him not be 
robbed of them; but if he needs legislation, let nira submit to just 
terms to obtain it. 

Let him, say we, have general law in advance (guarded in every 
possible way against fraud), so that when he acquires a legal right 
he will have no occasion to wait for additional legislation ; and if 
he has practised fraud, let the courts so decide. 



240 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



June [15?], 1858. — Brief Autobiography, 

The compiler of the " Dictionary of Congress " states that while 
preparing that work for publication, in 1858, he sent to Mr. Lincoln 
the usual request for a sketch of his life, and received the following 
reply : 

Bora, February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. 
Education defective. 
Profession, a lawyer. 

Have been a captain of volunteers in Black Hawk war. 
Postmaster at a vei-y small office. 

Four times a member of the Illinois legislature, and was a member of the 
lower house of Congress. Yours, etc., 

A. Lincoln. 



June 16, 1858. — Speech delivered at Springfield, Illinois, at 
THE Close of the Republican State Convention by which 
Mr. Lincoln had been named as their Candidate for United 
States Senator. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention : If we could first 
know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better 
judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth 
year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and con- 
fident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the 
operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but 
has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until 
a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided 
against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot en- 
dure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the 
Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to faU — but I do 
expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or 
all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further 
spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the be- 
lief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates 
will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, 
old as well as new. North as weU as South. 

Have we no tendency to the latter condition ? 

Let any one who doubts carefully contemplate that now almost 
complete legal combination — piece of machinery, so to speak — 
compounded of the Nebraska doctrine and the Dred Scott decision. 
Let him consider not only what work the machinery is adapted to 
do, and how well adapted ; but also let him study the history of its 
construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace 
the evidences of design and concert of action among its chief archi- 
tects, from the beginning. 

The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded from more than half 
the States by State constitutions, and from most of the national 
territory by congressional prohibition. Four days later commenced 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 241 

the struggle which ended iu repealing that congressional prohibi- 
tion. This opened all the national territory to slavery, and was the 
first point gained. 

But, so far, Congress only had acted ; and an indorsement by the 
people, real or apparent, was indispensable to save the point already 
gained and give chance for more. 

This necessity had not been overlooked, but had been provided 
for, as well as might be, iu the notable argument of " squatter sov- 
ereig-nty," otherwise called " sacred right of self-government," which 
latter phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis of any 
government, was so perverted iu this attempted use of it as to amount 
to just this : That if any one man choose to enslave another, no 
third man shall be allowed to object. That argument was incor- 
porated into the Nebraska bill itself, in the language which follows : 
" It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate 
slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom ; but 
to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their 
domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Consti- 
tution of the United States." Then opened the roar of loose decla- 
mation in favor of "squatter sovereignty" and "sacred right of 
self-government." " But," said opposition members, " let us amend 
the bill so as to expressly declare that the people of the Territory 
may exclude slavery." " Not we," said the friends of the measure ; 
and down they voted the amendment. 

While the Nebraska bill was passing through Congress, a law- 
case involving the question of a negro's freedom, by reason of his 
owner having voluntarily taken him first into a free State and then 
into a Territory covered by the congressional prohibition, and held 
him as a slave for a long time in each, was passing through the 
United States Circuit Court for the District of Missouri ; and both 
Nebraska bill and lawsuit were brought to a decision in the same 
month of May, 1854. Tlie negro's name was Dred Scott, which 
name now designates the decision finally made in the case. Before 
the then next presidential election, the law case came to and was 
argued in the Supreme Court of the United States ; but the decision 
of it was deferred until after the election. Still, before the election. 
Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requested the leading 
advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his opinion whether the peo- 
ple of a Territory can constitutionally exclude slavery from their 
limits ; and the latter answered : " That is a question for the Supreme 
Court." 

The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the indorse- 
ment, such as it was, secured. That was the second point gained. 
The indorsement, however, fell short of a clear popular majority by 
nearly four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not over- 
whelmingly reliable and satisfactory. The outgoing President, in his 
last annual message, as impressively as possible echoed back upon 
the people the weight and authority of the indorsement. The Su- 
preme Court met again ; did not announce their decision, but ordered 
a reargument. The presidential inauguration came, and still no 
decision of the court ; but the incoming President in his inaugural 
Vol. L— 16. 



242 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

address fervently exhorted the people to abide by the forthcoming 
decision, whatever it might be. Then, in a few days, came the 
decision. 

The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds an early occasion 
to make a speech at this capital indorsing the Dred Scott decision, 
and vehemently denouncing all opposition to it. The new Presi- 
dent, too, seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to indorse 
and strongly construe that decision, and to express his astonishment 
that any different view had ever been entertained ! 

At length a squabble springs up between the President and the 
author of the Nebraska bill, on the mere question of fact, whether 
the Lecomptou constitution was or was not, in any just sense, made 
bv the people of Kansas ; and in that quarrel the latter declares that 
all he wants is a fair vote for the people, and that he cares not 
whether slavery be voted down or voted up. I do not understand 
his declaration that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or 
voted up to be intended by him other than as an apt definition of the 
policy he would impress upon the public mind — the principle for 
which he declares he has suffered so much, and is ready to suffer to 
the end. And well may he cling to that principle. If he has any 
parental feeUng, well may he cling to it. That principle is the only 
shred left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under the Dred Scott 
decision " squatter sovereignty " squatted out of existence, tumbled 
down like temporary scaffolding, — like the mold at the foundry, 
served through one blast and fell back into loose sand, — helped to 
carry an election, and then was kicked to the winds. His late joint 
struggle with the Republicans against the Lecomptou constitution 
involves nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That struggle 
was made on a point — the right of a people to make their own con- 
stitution — upon which he and the Republicans have never differed. 

The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in connection with 
Senator Douglas's "care not" policy, constitute the piece of ma- 
chinery in its present state of advancement. This was the third 
point gained. The working points of that machinery are : 

(1) That no negi'o slave, imported as such from Africa, and no 
descendant of such slave, can ever be a citizen of any State, in the 
sense of that term as used in the Constitution of the United States. 
This point is made in order to deprive the negro in every possible 
event of the benefit of that provision of the United States Consti- 
tution which declares that " the citizens of each State shall be en- 
titled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several 
States." 

(2) That, "subject to the Constitution of the United States," 
neither Congress nor a territorial legislature can exclude slavery 
from any United States Territory. This point is made in order that 
individual men may fill up the Territories with slaves, without 
danger of losing them as propert_y, and thus enhance the chances of 
perraanenc^y to tlie institution through all the future. 

(3) That whether the holding a negro in actual slavery in a 
free State makes him free as against the holder, the United States 
courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided by the courts of 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 243 

any slave State the negro may be forced into by the master. This 
point is made not to be pressed immediately, but, if acquiesced in 
for a while, and apparently indorsed by the people at an election, 
then to sustain the logical conclusion that what Dred Scott's master 
might lawfully do with Dred Scott in the free State of Illinois, every 
other master may lawfully do with any other one or one thousand 
slaves in Illinois or in any other free State. 

Auxiliary to aU this, and working hand in hand with it, the Ne- 
braska doctrine, or what is left of it, is to educate and mold public 
opinion, at least Northern public opinion, not to care whether 
slavery is voted down or voted up. This shows exactly where we 
now are, and partially, also, whither we are tending. 

It will throw additional light on the latter, to go back and run 
the mind over the string of historical facts ah'eady stated. Several 
things will now appear less dark and mysterious than they did when 
they were transpiring. The people were to be left " perfectly free," 
*' subject only to the Constitution." Wliat the Constitution had to do 
with it outsiders could not then see. Plainly enough now, it was an 
exactly fitted niche for the Dred Scott decision to afterward come 
in, and declare the perfect fi'eedom of the people to be just no free- 
dom at all. Why was the amendment expressly declaring the right 
of the people voted down? Plainly enough now, the adoption of it 
would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision. Why was 
the court decision held up ? Why even a senator's individual opin- 
ion withheld till after the presidential election ? Plainly enough now, 
the speaking out then would have damaged the " perfectly free " 
argument upon which the election was to be carried. Why the out- 
going President's felicitation on the indorsement ? Why the delay 
of a reargument? Why the incoming President's advance exhor- 
tation in favor of the decision ? These things look like the cautious 
patting and petting of a spirited horse preparatory to mounting 
him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider a fall. And why 
the hasty after-indorsement of the decision by the President and 
others ! 

We cannot absolutely know that all these exact adaptations are 
the result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, 
different portions of which we know have been gotten out at dif- 
ferent times and places and by different workmen, — Stephen, Frank- 
lin, Roger, and James, for instance, — and we see these timbers 
joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house or 
a mill, aU the tenons and mortises exactly fitting, and all the lengths 
and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their re- 
spective places, and not a piece too many or too few, not omitting 
even scaffolding — or, if a single piece be lacking, we see the place 
in the frame exactly fitted and prepared yet to bring such piece in — 
in such a case we find it impossible not to believe that Stephen and 
Franklin and Roger and James all understood one another from the 
beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn up 
before the fli'st blow was struck. 

It should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska bill, the people 
of a State as well as Territory were to be left " perfectly free," " sub- 



244 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ject only to the Constitution." Why mention a State ? They were 
legislating for Territories, and not for or about States, Certainly 
the people of a State are and ought to be subject to the Constitu- 
tion of the United States ; but why is mention of this lugged into 
this merely territorial law 1 Why are the people of a Territory and 
the people of a State therein lumped together, and their relation to 
the Constitution therein treated as being precisely the same ? While 
the opinion of the court, by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott 
case, and the separate opinions of all the concurring judges, ex- 
pressly declare that the Constitution of the United States neither 
permits Congress nor a territorial legislature to exclude slaveiy 
from any United States Territory, they all omit to declare whether 
or not the same Constitution permits a State, or the people of a 
State, to exclude it. Possibly, this is a mere omission ; but who can 
be quite sure, if McLean or Curtis had sought to get into the 
opinion a declaration of unlimited power in the people of a State to 
exclude slavery from theii' limits, just as Chase and Mace sought to 
get such declaration, in behalf of the people of a Territory, into the 
Nebraska bill — I ask, who can be quite sure that it would not have 
been voted down in the one case as it had been in the other ? The 
nearest approach to the point of declaring the power of a State over 
slavery is made by Judge Nelson. He approaches it more than 
once, using the precise idea, and almost the language too, of the 
Nebraska act. On one occasion his exact language is: ** Except in 
cases where the power is restrained by the Constitution of the 
United States, the law of the State is supreme over the subject of 
slavery within its jurisdiction." In what cases the power of the 
States is so restrained by the United States Constitution is left an 
open question, precisely as the same question as to the restraint on 
the power of the Territories was left open in the Nebraska act. 
Put this and that together, and we have another nice little niche, 
which we may, ere long, see filled with another Su})reme Court de- 
cision declaring that the Constitution of the United States does not 
permit a State to exclude slavery from its limits. And this may es- 
pecially be expected if the doctrine of " care not whether slavery be 
voted down or voted up" shall gain upon the public mind suffi- 
ciently to give promise that such a decision can be maintained when 
made. 

Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike law- 
ful in all the States. Welcome, or imwelcome, such decision is 
probably coming, and will soon be upon us, unless the power of 
the present political dynasty shall be met and overthrown. We 
shall lie down pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri are 
on the verge of making their State free, and we shall awake to the 
reality instead that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave 
State. To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty is the 
work now before all those who would prevent that consummation. 
That is what we have to do. How can we best do it f 

There are those who denounce us openly to their own fiiends, and 
yet whisper us softly that Senator Douglas is the aptest instrument 
there is with which to effect that object. They \nsh. us to infer all 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 245 

from the fact that he now has a little quarrel witli the present head 
of the dynasty^ and that he has regularly voted with us on a single 
point upon which he and we have never differed. They remind us 
that he is a great man, and that the largest of us are very small 
ones. Let this be granted. But " a living dog is better than a dead 
lion." Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion for this work, is at least 
a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of 
slavery? He don't care anything about it. His avowed mission is 
iinpressing the " public heart " to care nothing about it. A leading 
Douglas Democratic newspaper thinks Douglas's superior talent 
will be needed to resist the revival of the African slave-trade. Does 
Douglas believe an effort to revive that trade is approaching? He 
has not said so. Does he really think so ? But if it is, how can he 
resist it? For years he has labored to prove it a sacred right of 
white men to take negro slaves into the new Territories. Can he 
possibly show that it is less a sacred right to buy them where they 
can be bought cheapest? And unquestionably they can be bought 
cheaper in Africa than in Virginia. He has done all in his power to 
reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere right of prop- 
erty ; and as such, how can he oppose the foreign slave-trade. How 
can he refuse that trade in that "property" shall be "perfectly 
free," unless he does it as a protection to the home production? 
And as the home producers will probably not ask the protection, he 
will be wholly without a ground of opposition. 

Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may rightfully be 
wiser to-day than he was yesterday — that he may rightfully change 
when he finds himself wrong. But can we, for that reason, run 
ahead, and infer that he will make any particular change of which 
he, himself, has given no intimation ? Can we safely base our action 
upon any such vague inference ? Now, as ever, I wish not to mis- 
represent Judge Douglas's position, question his motives, or do 
aught that can be personally offensive to him. Whenever, if ever, he 
and we can come together on principle so that our great cause may 
have assistance from his great ability, I hope to have interposed no 
adventitious obstacle. But clearly, he is not now with us — he does 
not pretend to be — he does not promise ever to be. 

Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its own 
undoubted friends — those whose hands are free, whose hearts are 
in the work, who do care for the result. Two years ago the Re- 
publicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand 
strong. We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a 
common danger, with every external circumstance against us. Of 
strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from 
the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under 
the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. 
Did we brave all then to falter now? — now, when that same enemy 
is wavering, dissevered, and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. 
We shall not fail — if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise coun- 
sels may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the 
victory is sure to come. 



246 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

June 25, 1858. — Letter to J. W. Somers. 

Springfield, June 25, 1858. 
James W. Somers, Esq. 

My dear Sir : Yours of the 22d, inclosing a draft of two hundred 
dollars, was duly received. I have paid it on the judgment, and here- 
with you have the receipt. I do not wish to say anything as to who 
shall be the Republican candidate for the legislature in your district, 
further than that I have full confidence in Dr. Hull. Have you ever 
got in the way of consulting with McKinley in political matters? 
He is true as steel, and his judgment is very good. The last I heard 
from him, he rather thought Weldon, of De Witt, was our best timber 
for representative, all things considered. But you there must settle 
it among yourselves. It may well puzzle older heads than yours to 
understand how, as the Dred Scott decision holds, Congress can 
authorize a territorial legislature to do ever^hing else, and cannot 
authorize them to prohibit slavery. That is one of the things the 
court can decide, but can never give an intelligible reason for. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 



June 25, 1858. — Letter to A. Campbell. 

Springfield, June 25, 1858. 
A. Caaipbell, Esq. 

My dear Sir : In 1856 you gave me authority to draw on you for 
any sum not exceeding five hundred dollars. I see clearly that such 
a privilege would be more available now than it was then. I am 
aware that times are tighter now than they were then. Please write 
me, at all events; and whether you can now do anything or not, I 
shall continue grateful for the past. Yours very truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

July 7, 1858. — Letter to J. J. Crittenden. 

Springfield, July 7, 1858. 
To THE Honorable J. J. Crittenden. 

Dear Sir : I beg you will pardon me for the liberty in addressing 
you upon only so limited an acquaintance, and that acquaintance 
so long past. I am prompted to do so by a story being whispered 
about here that you are anxious for the reelection of Mr. Douglas 
to the United States Senate, and also of Harris, of our district, to the 
House of Representatives, and that you are pledged to write letters 
to that effect to your friends here in Illinois, if requested. I do not 
believe the story, but still it gives me some uneasiness. If such 
was your inclination, I do not believe you would so express yourself. 
It is not in character with you as I have always estimated you. 

You have no warmer friends than here in Illinois, and I assure 
you nine tenths — I believe ninety-nine hundredths — of them would 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 247 

be mortified exceedinglj' by anything of the sort from you. When I 
tell you this, make such allowance as you think just for my position, 
which, I doubt not, you understand. Nor am I fishing for a letter 
on the other side. Even if such could be had, my judgment is that 
you would better be hands off ! 

Please drop me a line ; and if your purposes are as I hope they 
are not, please let me know. The confirmation would pain me much, 
but I should still continue your friend and admirer. 

Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. 

P. S. I purposely fold this sheet within itself instead of an 
envelop. 

July 10, 1858. — Speech at Chicago, Illinois. 

My Fellow-citizens : On yesterday evening, upon the occasion of 
the reception given to Senator Douglas, I was furnished with a 
seat very convenient for hearing him, and was otherwise very cour- 
teously treated by him and his friends, and for which I thank him and 
them. During the course of his remarks my name was mentioned 
in such a way as, I suppose, renders it at least not improper that I 
should make some sort of reply to him. I shall not attempt to 
follow him in the precise order in which he addressed the assembled 
multitude upon that occasion, though I shall perhaps do so in the 
main. 

There was one question to which he asked the attention of the 
crowd, which I deem of somewhat less importance — at least of 
propriety for me to dwell upon — than the others, which he brought 
in near the close of his speech, and which I think it would not be 
entirely proper for me to omit attending to; and yet if I Avere not to 
give some attention to it now, I should probably forget it altogether. 
While I am upon this subject, allow me to say that I do not intend 
to indulge in that inconvenient mode sometimes adopted in public 
speaking, of reading from documents ; but I shaU depart from that 
rule so far as to read a little scrap from his speech, which notices 
this first topic of which I shall speak — that is, provided I can find 
it in the paper. 

I have made up ray mind to appeal to the people against the combination 
that has been made against me. The RepubUean leaders have formed an 
alUance, an unholy and unnatural alliance, with a portion of unscrupxilous 
federal office-holders. I intend to fight that aUied army wherever I meet 
them. I know they deny the aUiance, but yet these men who are trjdng to 
divide the Democratic party for the purpose of electing a Republican sena- 
tor in my place, are just so much the agents and tools of the supporters of 
Mr. Lincoln. Hence I shall deal with this allied army just as the Russians 
dealt with the allies at Sebastopol — that is, the Russians did not stop to 
inquire, when they fired a broadside, whether it hit an Englishman, a 
Frenchman, or a Turk. Nor will I stop to inquire, nor shaU I hesitate, 
whether my blows shall hit these Republican leaders or their allies, who are 
holding the federal offices and yet acting in concei-t with them. 

Well, now, gentlemen, is not that very alarming ? Just to think 
of it ! right at the outset of his canvass, I, a poor, kind, amiable, 



248 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

intelligent gentleman — I am to be slain in this way. Why, my friend 
the judge is not only, as it turns out, not a dead lion, nor even a 
living one — he is the rugged Russian bear. 

But if they will have it — for he says that we deny it — that there 
is any such alliance, as he says there is, — and I don't propose hang- 
ing very much upon this question of veracity, — but if he will have it 
that there is such an alliance, that the administration men and 
we are allied, and we stand in the attitude of English, French, and 
Turk, he occupying the position of the Russian, — in that case I beg 
he will indulge us while we barely suggest to him that these allies 
took Sebastopol. 

Gentlemen, only a few more words as to this alliance. For my 
part, I have to say that whether there be such an alliance depends, 
so far as I know, upon what may be a right definition of the term 
alliance. If for the Republican party to see the other great party to 
which they are opposed divided among themselves and not try to 
stop the division, and rather be glad of it, — if that is an alliance, I 
confess I am in ; but if it is meant to be said that the Republicans 
had formed an alliance going beyond that, by which there is con- 
tribution of money or sacrifice of principle on the one side or the 
other, so far as the Republican party is concerned, if there be any 
such thing, I protest that I neither know anything of it nor do I 
believe it. I will, however, say — as I think this branch of the 
argument is lugged in — I would before I leave it state, for the 
benefit of those concerned, that one of those same Buchanan men 
did once tell me of an argument that he made for his opposition to 
Judge Douglas. He said that a friend of our Senator Douglas had 
been talking to him, and had among other things said to him : "Why, 
you don't want to beat Douglas f" "Yes," said he, "I do want to 
beat him, and I will tell you why. I believe his original Nebraska 
biU was right in the abstract, but it was wrong in the time that it was 
brought forward. It was wrong in the application to a Territory 
in regard to which the question had been settled ; it was brought 
forward at a time when nobody asked him ; it was tendered to the 
South when the South had not asked for it, but when they could not 
well refuse it ; and for this same reason he forced that question upon 
our party. It has sunk the best men all over the nation, everywhere ; 
and now when our President, struggling with the difficulties of this 
man's getting up, has reached the very hardest point to turn in the 
case, he deserts him, and I am for putting him where lie will trouble 
us no more." 

Now, gentlemen, that is not my argument — that is not my argu- 
ment at aU. I have only been stating to you the argument of a 
Buchanan man. You will judge if there is any force in it. 

Popular sovereignty ! everlasting popular sovereignty ! Let us 
for a moment inquire into this vast matter of popular sovereignty. 
What is popular sovereignty ? We recollect that at an early period 
in the history of this struggle, there was another name for the same 
thing — squatter sovereignty. It was not exactly popular sov- 
ereignty, but squatter sovereignty. What did those terms mean ? 
What do those terms mean mieu. used now ? And vast credit is 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 249 

takeu by oui- frieud the judge in regard to his support of it, when 
he declares the last years of his life have been, and all the futm*e 
years of his life shall be, devoted to this matter of popular sov- 
ereignty. What is it ? Why, it is the sovereignty of the people ! 
What was squatter sovereignty "? I suppose if it liad any signifi- 
cance at all, it was the right of the people to govern themselves, to be 
sovereign in their own affairs while they were squatted down in a 
country not their own, while they had squatted on* a Territory that 
did not belong to them, in the sense that a State belongs to the peo- 
ple who inhabit it — when it belonged to the nation — such right to 
govern themselves was called "squatter sovereignty." 

Now I wish you to mark what has become of that squatter 
sovereignty. What has become of it? Can you get anybody to 
teU you now that the people of a Territory have any authority to 
govern themselves, in regard to this mooted question of slavery, 
before they form a State constitution? No such thing at all, 
although there is a general running fire, and although there has 
been a hurrah made in every speech on that side, assuming that 
policy had given the people of a Territory the right to govern 
themselves upon this question ; yet the point is dodged. To-day it 
has been decided — no more than a year ago it was decided by the 
Supreme Court of the United States, and is insisted upon to-day — 
that the people of a Territory have no right to exclude slavery from 
a Territory ; that if any one man chooses to take slaves into a 
Territory, all the rest of the people have no right to keep them out. 
This being so, and this decision being made one of the points that 
the judge approved, and one in the approval of which he says he 
means to keep me down — put me down I should not say, for I have 
never been up ; he says he is in favor of it, and sticks to it, and 
expects to win his battle on that decision, which says that there is 
no such thing as squatter sovereignty, but that any one man may take 
slaves into a Territory, and all the other men in the Territory 
may be opposed to it, and yet by reason of the Constitution they 
cannot prohibit it. When that is so, how much is left of this vast 
matter of squatter sovereignty, I should like to know ? 

When we get back, we get to the point of the right of the people 
to make a constitution. Kansas was settled, for example, in 1854. 
It was a Territory yet, without having formed a constitution, in a 
very regular way, for three years. All this time negi'O slavery could 
be taken in by any few individuals, and by that decision of the 
Supreme Court, which the judge approves, all the rest of the people 
cannot keep it out; but when they come to make a constitution 
they may say they will not have slavery. But it is there ; they are 
obliged to tolerate it some way, and all experience shows it will 
be so — for they will not take the negro slaves and absolutely deprive 
the owners of them. All experience shows this to be so. All that 
space of time that runs from the beginning of the settlement of the 
Territory until there is sufficiency of people to make a State consti- 
tution — all that portion of time popular sovereignty is given up. 
The seal is absolutely put down upon it by the court decision, and 
Judge Douglas puts his own upon the top of that; yet he is appeal- 



250 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ing to the people to give him vast credit for his devotion to popular 
sovereignty. 

Again, when we get to the question of the right of the people to 
form a State constitution as they please, to form it with slavery or 
without slavery — if that is anything new, I confess I don't know it. 
Has there ever been a time when anybody said that any other than 
the people of a Territory itself should form a constitution ? What 
is now in it that Judge Douglas should have fought several years of 
his life, and pledge himself to fight all the remaining years of his 
life, for ? Can Judge Douglas find anybody on earth that said that 
anybody else should form a constitution for a people? [A voice: 
" Yes."] Well, I should like you to name him ; I should like to know 
who he was. [Same voice : " John Calhoun."] No, sir; I never heard 
of even John Calhoun saying such a thing. He insisted on the 
same principle as Judge Douglas ; but his mode of applying it, in 
fact, was wrong. It is enough for my purpose to ask this crowd 
whenever a Republican said anything against it ? They never said 
anything against it, but they have constantly spoken for it; and 
whosoever wOl undertake to examine the platform and the speeches 
of responsible men of the party, and of irresponsible men, too, if you 
please, will be unable to find one word from anybody in the Republi- 
can ranks opposed to that popular sovereignty which Judge Douglas 
thinks he has invented. I suppose that Judge Douglas will claim 
in a little while that he is the inventor of the idea that the people 
should govern themselves; that nobody ever thought of such a 
thing until he brought it forward. We do not remember that in 
that old Declaration of Independence it is said that '' We hold these 
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal ; that they 
are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that 
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to 
secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving 
their just powers from the consent of the governed." There is the 
origin of popular sovereignty. Who, then, shall come in at this day 
and claim that he invented it ? 

The Lecompton constitution connects itself with this question^ for 
it is in this matter of the Lecompton constitution that our friend 
Judge Douglas claims such vast credit. I agree that in opposing 
the Lecompton constitution, so far as I can perceive, he was right. 
I do not deny that at all ; and, gentlemen, you wiU readily see why I 
could not deny it, even if I wanted to. But I do not wish to ; for all 
the Republicans in the nation opposed it, and they would have op- 
posed it just as much without Judge Douglas's aid as with it. They 
had all taken gi-ouud against it long before he did. Why, the reason 
that he urges against that constitution I urged against him a year 
before. I have the printed speech in my hand. The argument that 
he makes why that constitution should not be adopted, that the 
people were not fairly represented nor allowed to vote, I pointed out 
in a speech a year ago, which I hold in my hand now, that no fair 
chance was to be given to the people. [''Read it; read it."] I 
shall not waste your time by trying to read it. [" Read it ; read 
it."] Gentlemen, reading from speeches is a very tedious business, 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 251 

particularly for an old man who has to put on spectacles, and more 
so if the man be so tall that he has to bend over to the light. 

A little more now as to this matter of popular sovereignty and 
the Lecompton constitution. The Lecompton constitution, as the 
judge tells us, was defeated. The defeat of it was a good thing, or it 
was not. He thinks the defeat of it was a good thing, and so do I, 
and we agree in that. Who defeated it ? [A voice : " Judge Douglas."] 
Yes, he furnished himself, and if you suppose he controlled the other 
Democrats that went with hira, he furnished three votes, while the 
Republicans furnished twenty. 

That is what he did to defeat it. In the House of Representatives 
he and his friends furnished some twenty votes, and the Republicans 
furnished ninety odd. Now, who was it that did the work f [A voice : 
''Douglas."] Why, yes, Douglas did it! To be sure he did. 

Let us, however, put that proposition another way. The Republi- 
cans could not have done it without Judge Douglas. Could he have 
done it without them ? Which could have come the nearest to doing 
it without the other? [A voice: "Who killed the bill?" Another 
voice : " Douglas."] Ground was taken against it by the Republicans 
long before Douglas did it. The proportion of opposition to that 
measure is about five to one. [A voice: " Wliy don't they come out 
on it?"] You don't know what you are talking about, my friend. 
I am quite willing to answer any gentleman in the crowd who asks 
an intelligent question. 

Now, who, iu all this country, has ever found any of our friends of 
Judge Douglas's way of thinking, and who have acted upon this 
main question, that have ever thought of uttering a word in behalf 
of Judge Trumbull? [A voice: "We have."] I defy ,you to show a 
printed resolution passed in a Democratic meeting. I take it upon 
myself to defy any man to show a printed resolution of a Democratic 
meeting, large or small, in favor of Judge Trumbull, or any of the 
five to one Republicans who beat that bill. Everything must be for 
the Democrats ! They did everything, and the five to the one that 
really did the thing they snub over, and they do not seem to remem- 
ber that they have an existence upon the face of the earth. 

Gentlemen, I fear that I shall become tedious. I leave this branch 
of the subject to take hold of another. I take up that part of Judge 
Douglas's speech in which he respectfully attended to me. 

Judge Douglas made two points upon my recent speech at Spring- 
field. He says they are to be the issues of this campaign. The first 
one of these points he bases upon the language in a speech which I 
delivered at Springfield, which I believe I can quote con-ectly from 
memory. I said there that " we are now far into the fifth year since 
a policy was instituted for the avowed object and with the confident 
promise of putting an end to slavery agitation ; under the operation 
of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has con- 
stantly augmented. 1 believe it will not cease until a crisis shall have 
been reached and passed. ' A house divided against itself cannot 
stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently half 
slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved " — 
I am quoting from my speech — " I do not expect the house to fall, 



252 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one 
thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest 
the fui'ther spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest 
in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its 
advocates wiU push it forward until it shall become alike lawful in 
all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South." 

That is the paragraph ! In this paragraph which I have quoted 
in your hearing, and to which I ask the attention of all. Judge Doug- 
las thinks he discovers great political heresy. I want your attention 
particularly to what he has inferred from it. He says I am in favor 
of making all the States of this Union uniform in all their internal 
regulations ; that in all their domestic concerns I am in favor of 
making them entirely uniform. He draws this inference from the 
language I have quoted to you. He says that I am in favor of making 
war by the North upon the South for the extinction of slavery; that 
I am also in favor of inviting (as he expresses it) the South to a war 
upon the North, for the purpose of nationalizing slavery. Now, it is 
singular enough, if you will carefully read that passage over, that I 
did not say that I was in favor of anything in it. I only said what 
I expected would take place. I made a prediction only — it may have 
been a foolish one, perhaps. I did not even say that I desired that 
slavery should be put in course of ultimate extinction. I do say so 
now, however, so there need be no longer any difficulty about that. 
It may be written down in the great speech. 

Gentlemen, Judge Douglas informed you that this speech of mine 
was probably carefully prepared. I admit that it was. I am not 
master of language; I have not a fine education; I am not capable 
of entering into a disquisition upon dialectics, as I believe you call it ; 
but I do not believe the language I employed bears any such con- 
struction as Judge Douglas puts upon it. But I don't care about a 
quibble in regard to words. I know what I meant, and I will not leave 
this crowd in doubt, if I can explain it to them, what I really meant 
in the use of that paragraph. 

I am not, in the first place, unaware that this government has en- 
dured eighty-two years half slave and half free. I know that. I 
am tolerably well acquainted with the history of the country, and I 
know that it has endured eighty-two years half slave and half free. 
I believe — and that is what I meant to allude to there — I believe it 
has endured because during all that time, until the introduction of 
the Nebraska bill, the public mind did rest all the time in the belief 
that slavery was in course of ultimate extinction. That was what 
gave us the rest that we had through that period of eighty-two 
years ; at least, so I believe. I have always hated slaver y, I think, 
as much as any Abolitionist — I have been an old-line Whig — I 
have always hated it, but I have always been quiet about it until 
this new era of the introduction of the Nebraska bill began. I al- 
ways believed that everybody was against it, and that it was in 
course of ultimate extinction. [Pointing to Mr. Browning, who 
stood nearby.] Browning thought so; the great mass of the nation 
have rested in the belief that slavery was in course of ultimate 
extinction. They had reason so to believe. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 253 

The adoption of the Constitution and its attendant history led 
the people to believe so, and that such was the belief of the framers 
of the Constitution itself. Why did those old men, about the time of 
the adoption of the Constitution, decree that slavery should not go 
into the new Territory, where it had not already gone f Why declare 
that within twenty years the African slave-trade, by which slaves 
are supplied, might be cut off by Congress 1 Why were all these 
acts? I might enumerate more of these acts — but enough. What 
were they but a clear indication that the framers of the Constitution 
intended and expected the ultimate extinction of that institution? 
And now, when I say, — as I said in my speech that Judge Douglas 
has quoted from, — when I say that I think the opponents of slavery 
will resist the farther spread of it, and place it where tlie public 
mind shall rest in the belief that it is m course of ultimate ex- 
tinction, I only mean to say that they will place it where the 
founders of this government originally placed it. 

I have said a hundred times, and I have now no inclination to 
take it back, that I believe there is no right and ought to be no in- 
clination in the people of the free States to enter into the slave 
States and interfere with the question of slavery at all. I have said 
that alwaj's; Judge Douglas has heard me say it — if not quite a 
hundred times, at least as good as a hundred times ; and when it is 
said that I am in favor of interfering with slavery where it exists, I 
know it is unwarranted by anything I have ever intended, and, as 
I believe, by anything I have ever said. If by any means I have 
ever used language which could fauiy be so construed (as, however, 
I believe I never have), I now correct it. 

So much, then, for the inference that Judge Douglas draws, that 
I am in favor of setting the sections at war with one another. I 
know that I never meant any such thing, and I believe that no fair 
mind can infer any such thing from anything I have ever said. 

Now in relation to his inference that I am in favor of a general 
consolidation of all the local institutions of the various States. I 
will attend to that for a little while, and try to inquire, if I can, how 
on earth it could be that any man could draw such an inference 
from anything I said. I have said very many times in Judge 
Douglas's hearing that no man believed more than I in the principle 
of self-government ; that it lies at the bottom of all my ideas of just 
government from beginning to end. I have denied that his use of 
that term applies properly. But for the thing itself I deny that any 
man has ever gone ahead of me in his devotion to the principle, 
whatever he may have done in efficiency in advocating it. I think 
that I have said it in your hearing — that I believe each individual 
is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruit 
of his labor, so far as it in no wise interferes with any other man's 
rights; that each community, as a State, has a right to do exactly 
as it pleases with all the concerns within that State that interfere 
with the right of no other State; and that the General Government, 
upon principle, has no right to interfere with anything other than 
that general class of things that does concern the whole. I have 
said that at all times. I have said as illustrations that I do not be- 



254 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

lieve in the right of Illinois to interfere with the cranberry laws of 
Indiana, the oyster laws of Virginia, or the liquor laws of Maine. I 
have said these things over and over again, and I repeat them here 
as my sentiments. 

How is it, then, that Judge Douglas infers, because I hope to see 
slavery put where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is 
in the course of ultimate extinction, that I am in favor of lUinois 
going over and interfering with the cranberry laws of Indiana? 
What can authorize him to draw any such inference ? I suppose there 
might be one thing that at least enabled him to draw such an infer- 
ence that would not be true with me or many others; that is, because 
he looks upon all this matter of slavery as an exceedingly little 
thing — this matter of keeping one sixth of the population of the 
whole nation in a state of oppression and tyranny unequaled in the 
world. He looks upon it as being an exceedingly little thing, only 
equal to the question of the cranberry laws of Indiana — as some- 
thing having no moral question in it — as something on a par with 
the question of whether a man shall pasture his land with cattle or 
plant it with tobacco — so little and so small a thing that he con- 
cludes, if I could desire that anything should be done to briug 
about the ultimate extinction of that little thing, I must be in favor 
of bringing about an amalgamation of all the other little things in 
the Union. Now, it so happens — and there, I presume, is the foun- 
dation of this mistake — that the judge thinks thus; and it so hap- 
pens that there is a vast portion of the American people that do not 
look upon that matter as being this very little thing. They look 
upon it as a vast moral evil; they can prove it as such by the 
writings of those who gave us the blessings of liberty which we en- 
joy, and that they so looked upon it, and not as an evil merely con- 
fining itself to the States where it is situated ; and while we agree 
that, by the Constitution we assented to, in the States where it 
exists we have no right to interfere with it, because it is in the Con- 
stitution, we are by both duty and inclination to stick by that 
Constitution in all its letter and spirit from beginning to end. 

So much, then, as to my disposition — my wish — to have all the State 
legislatures blotted out, and to have one consolidated government, 
and a uniformity of domestic regulations in all the States; by which 
I suppose it is meant, if we raise corn here, we must make sugar- 
cane ^row here too, and we must make those which grow North 
grow in the South. All this I suppose he understands I am in favor 
of doing. Now, so much for all this nonsense — for I must call it so. 
The jud^e can have no issue with me on a question of establishing 
uniformity in the domestic regulations of the States. 

A little now on the other point — the Dred Scott decision. An- 
other of the issues he says that is to be made with me, is upon his 
devotion to the Dred Scott decision, and my opposition to it. 

I have expressed heretofore, and I now repeat, my opposition to 
the Dred Scott decision ; but I should be allowed to state the nature 
of that opposition, and I ask your indulgence while I do so. What 
is fairly implied by the terra Judge Douglas has used, '' resistance to 
the decision "1 I do not resist it. If I wanted to take Dred Scott 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 255 

from his master, I would be iuterferiug with property, aud that ter- 
rible difficulty that Judge Douglas speaks of, of interfering with 
property, would arise. But I am doing no such thing as that ; all 
that 1 am doing is refusing to obey it as a political rule. If I were 
in Congress, and a vote should come up on a question whether 
slavery should be prohibited in a new Territory, in spite of the 
Dred Scott decision, I would vote that it should. 

That is what I would do. Judge Douglas said last night that be- 
fore the decision he might advance his opinion, and it might be con- 
trary to the decision when it was made; but after it was made he 
would abide by it until it was reversed. Just so ! We let this prop- 
erty abide by the decision, but we will try to reverse that decision. 
We will try to put it where Judge Douglas would not object, for he 
says he will obey it until it is reversed. Somebody has to reverse 
that decision, since it is made; and we mean to reverse it, and we 
mean to do it peaceably. 

What are the uses of decisions of courts? They have two uses. 
As rules of property they have two uses. First — they decide upon 
the question before the court. They decide in this case that Dred 
Scott is a slave. Nobody resists that. Not only that, but they say 
to everybody else that persons standing just as Dred Scott stands are 
as he is. That is, they say that when a question comes up upon another 
person, it will be so decided again, unless the court decides in another 
way, unless the court overrules its decision. Well, we mean to do 
what we can to have the court decide the other way. That is one 
thing we mean to try to do. 

The sacredness that Judge Douglas throws around this decision is 
a degree of sacredness that has never been before thrown around any 
other decision. I have never heard of such a thing. Why, decisions 
apparently contrary to that decision, or that good lawyers thought 
were contrary to that decision, have been made by that very court be- 
fore. It is the fii'st of its kind; it is an astonisher in legal history. 
It is a new wonder of the world. It is based upon falsehood in the 
main as to the facts, — allegations of facts upon which it stands are 
not facts at all in many instances, — and no decision made on any ques- 
tion — the first instance of a decision made under so many unfavora- 
ble circumstances — thus placed, has ever been held by the profession 
as law, and it has always needed confirmation before the lawyers re- 
garded it as settled law. But Judge Douglas will have it that all 
hands must take this extraordinary decision, made under these 
extraordinary circumstances, and give their vote in Congress in ac- 
cordance with it, yield to it and obey it in every possible sense. Cir- 
cumstances alter cases. Do not gentlemen here remember the case of 
that same Supreme Court, some twenty-five or thirty years ago, de- 
ciding that a national bank was constitutional? I ask if somebody 
does not remember that a national bank was declared to be constitu- 
tional? Such is the trath, whether it be remembered or not. The 
bank charter ran out, and a recharter was granted by Congress. 
That recharter was laid before General Jackson. It was urged upon 
him, when he denied the constitutionality of the bank, that the Su- 
preme Court had decided that it was constitutional; and General 



256 ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Jackson then said that the Supreme Court had no right to lay down 
a rule to govern a coordinate branch of the government, the mem- 
bers of which had sworn to support the Constitution — that each 
member had sworn to support that Constitution as he understood it. 
I will venture here to say that I have heard Judge Douglas say that 
he approved of General Jackson for that act. What has now become 
of all his tirade against "resistance to the Supreme Court"'? 

My fellow-citizens, getting back a little, for I pass from these 
points, when Judge Douglas makes his threat of annihilation upon 
the " alliance," he is cautious to say that that warfare of his is to 
fall upon the leaders of the Republican party. Almost every word 
he utters, and every distinction he makes, has its significance. He 
means for the Republicans who do not count themselves as leaders 
to be his friends; he makes no fuss over them; it is the leaders that 
he is making war upon. He wants it understood that the mass of 
the Republican party are really his friends. It is only the leaders that 
are doing something, that are intolerant, and require extermina- 
tion at his hands. As this is clearly and unquestionably the light 
in which he presents that matter, I want to ask your attention, 
addressing myself to Republicans here, that I may ask you some 
questions as to where you, as the Republican party, would be placed 
if you sustained Judge Douglas in his present position by a reelec- 
tion? I do not claim, gentlemen, to be unselfish; I do not pretend 
that 1 would not like to go to the United States Senate; I make no 
such hypocritical pretense, but I do say to you that in this mighty 
issue, it is nothing to you — nothing to the mass of the people of 
the nation — whether or not Judge Douglas or myself shall ever be 
heard of after this night ; it may be a trifle to either of us, but in 
connection with this mighty question, upon which hang the destinies 
of the nation, perhaps, it is absolutely nothing. But where wOl you 
be placed if you reindorse Judge Douglas ? Don't you know how 
apt he is — how exceedingly anxious he is at all times to seize upon 
anything and everything to persuade you that something he has 
done you did yourselves ? Why, he tried to persuade you last night 
that our Illinois legislature instructed him to introduce the Ne- 
braska bill. There was nobody in that legislature ever thought of 
such a thing ; and when he first introduced the bill, he never thought 
of it ; but stiU he fights furiously for the proposition, and that he 
did it because there was a standing instruction to our senators to 
be always introducing Nebraska bills. He tells you he is for the 
Cincinnati platform; he tells you he is for the Dred Scott decision. 
He tells you, not in his speech last night, but substantially in a 
former speech, that he cares not if slavery is voted up or down ; 
he tells you the struggle on Lecompton is past — it may come up 
a^ain or not, and if it does he stands where he stood when in spite of 
him and his opposition you built up the Republican party. If you 
indorse him, you tell him you do not care whether slavery be voted 
up or down, and he will close, or try to close, your mouths with his 
declaration, repeated by the day, the week, the month, and the year. 
I think, in the position in which Judge Douglas stood in opposing 
the Lecompton constitution, he was right ; he does not know that 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 257 

it will return, but if it does we may know where to find him, 
and if it does not we may know where to look for him, and that 
is on the Cincinnati platform. Now I could ask the Republi- 
can party, after all the hard names Judge Douglas has called them 
by, all his repeated charges of their inclination to marry with and 
hug negroes, all his declarations of Black Republicanism, — by the 
way, we are improving, the black has got rubbed off, — but with all 
that, if he be indorsed by Republican votes, where do you stand ? 
Plainly, you stand ready saddled, bridled, and harnessed, and waiting 
to be driven over to the slavery extension camp of the nation, — just 
ready to be driven over, tied together in a lot, — to be driven over, 
every man with a rope around his neck, that halter being held by 
Judge Douglas. That is the question. If Republican men have 
been in earnest in what they have done, I think they had better not 
do it ; but I think the Republican party is made up of those who, as 
far as they can peaceably, will oppose the extension of slavery, and 
who will hope for its ultimate extinction. If they believe it is 
wrong in grasping up the new lands of the continent, and keeping 
them from the settlement of free white laborers, who want the land 
to bring up their families upon ; if they are in earnest, although they 
may make a mistake, they will grow restless, and the time will come 
when they will come back again and reorganize, if not by the same 
name, at least upon the same principles as their party now has. 
It is better, then, to save the work while it is begun. You have 
done the labor; maintain it, keep it. If men choose to serve you, 
go with them ; but as you have made up your organization upon 
principle, stand by it ; for, as surely as God reigns over you, and 
has inspired your mind, and given you a sense of propriety, and 
continues to give you hope, so surely will you still cling to these 
ideas, and you will at last come back again after your wanderings, 
merely to do your work over again. 

We were often — more than once at least — in the course of Judge 
Douglas's speech last night reminded that this government was 
made for white men — that he believed it was made for white men. 
Well, that is putting it into a shape in which no one wants to deny 
it; but the judge then goes into his passion for drawing inferences 
that are not warranted. I protest, now and forever, against that 
counterfeit logic which presumes that because I do not want a negro 
woman for a slave, I do necessarily want her for a wife. My under- 
standing is that I need not have her for either; but, as God made us 
separate, we can leave one another alone, and do one another much 
good thereby. There are white men enough to marry all the white 
women, and enough black men to marry all the black women, and 
in God's name let them be so married. The judge regales us with 
the terrible enormities that take place by the mixture of races ; that 
the inferior race bears the superior down. Why, judge, if we do not 
let them get together in the Territories, they won't mix there. [A 
voice: "Three cheers for Lincoln!" The cheers were given with a 
hearty good will.] I should say at least that that is a self-evident 
truth. 

Now, it happens that we meet together once every year, somewhere 

Vol. I.— 17. 



258 ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

about the 4th of July, for some reason or other. These 4th of July 
gatherings I suppose have their uses. If you will indulge me, I will 
state what I suppose to be some of them. 

We are now a mighty nation : we are thirty, or about thirty, mil- 
lions of people, and we own and inhabit about one fifteenth part of 
the dry land of the whole earth. We run our memory bacK over 
the pages of history for about eighty-two years, and we discover 
that we were then a very small people, in point of numbers vastly 
inferior to what we are now, with a vastly less extent of countrv, 
with vastly less of everything we deem desirable among men. V^e 
look upon the change as exceedingly advantageous to us and to our 
posterity, and we fix upon something that happened away back as 
in some way or other being connected with this rise of prosperity. 
We find a race of men living in that day whom we claim as our 
fathers and grandfathers; they were iron men; they fought for the 
principle that they were contending for ; and we understood that by 
what they then did it has followed that the degree of prosperity 
which we now enjoy has come to us. We hold this annual celebra- 
tion to remind ourselves of all the good done in this process of 
time, of how it was done and who did it, and how we are historically 
connected with it ; and we go from these meetings in better humor 
with ourselves — we feel more attached the one to the other, and 
more firmly bound to the country we inhabit. In every way we are 
better men, in the age, and race, and country in which we live, for 
these celebrations. But after we have done all this, we have not yet 
reached the whole. There is something else connected with it. We 
have, besides these men — descended by blood from our ancestors — 
among us, perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all 
of these men ; they are men who have come from Europe, — German, 
Irish, French, and Scandinavian, — men that have come from Europe 
themselves, or whose ancestors have come hither and settled here, 
finding themselves our equal in all things. If they look back through 
this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they 
find they have none; they cannot carry themselves back into that 
glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are part of us; 
but when they look through that old Declaration of Independence, 
they find that those old men say that " We hold these truths to be 
self-evident, that all men are created equal," and then they feel that 
that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences theii* relation to 
those men, that it is the father of all moral principle in them, and 
that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the 
blood, and flesh of the flesh, of the men who wrote that Declaration, 
and so they are. That is the electric cord in that Declaration that 
links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that 
will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists 
in the minds of men throughout the world. 

Now, sirs, for the purpose of squaring things with this idea of 
"don't care if slavery is voted up or voted down," for sustaining 
the Dred Scott decision, for holding that the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence did not mean anything at all, we have Judge Douglas 
giving his exposition of what the Declaration of Independence 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 259 

means, and we have him saying that the people of America are equal 
to the people of England. According to his construction, you Ger- 
mans are not connected with it. Now I ask you, in all soberness, if 
all these things, if indulged in, if ratified, if confirmed and indorsed, 
if taught to our children, and repeated to them, do not tend to rub 
out the sentiment of liberty in the country, and to transform this 
government into a government of some other form? Those argu- 
ments that are made, that the inferior race are to be treated with 
as much allowance as they are capable of enjoying; that as much 
is to be done for them as their condition will allow — what are these 
arguments ? They are the arguments that kings have made for en- 
slaving the people in all ages of the world. You will find that all 
the arguments in favor of kingcraft were of this class ; they always 
bestrode the necks of the people — not that they wanted to do it, but 
because the people were better off for being ridden. That is their 
argument, and this argument of the judge is the same old serpent 
that says, You work and I eat, you toil and I will enjoy the fruits 
of it. Turn in whatever way you will — whether it come from the 
mouth of a king, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, 
or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the 
men of another race, it is all the same old serpent, and I hold if 
that course of argumentation that is made for the purpose of con- 
vincing the public mind that we should not care about this should 
be granted, it does not stop with the negro. I should like to know 
— taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that 
all men are equal upon principle, and making exceptions to it, — where 
will it stop? If one man says it does not mean a negro, why not 
another say it does not mean some other man ? If that Declaration 
is not the truth, let us get the statute-book in which we find it, and 
tear it out ! Who is so bold as to do it ? If it is not true, let us 
tear it out [cries of "■ No, no "]. Let us stick to it, then ; let us stand 
firmly by it, then. 

It may be argued that there are certain conditions that make 
necessities and impose them upon us, and to the extent that a ne- 
cessity is imposed upon a man, he must submit to it. I think that 
was the condition in w^hich we found ourselves when we established 
this government. We had slaves among us; we could not get 
our Constitution unless we permitted them to remain in slaver}^; we 
could not secure the good we did secure if we grasped for more ; but 
having by necessity submitted to that much, it does not destroy the 
principle that is the charter of our liberties. Let that charter stand 
as our standard. 

My friend has said to me that I am a poor hand to quote Scrij)- 
ture. I will try it again, however. It is said in one of the admoni- 
tions of our Lord, "Be ye [therefore] perfect even as your Father 
which is in heaven is perfect." The Saviour, I suppose, did not ex- 
pect that any human creature could be perfect as the Father in 
heaven; but he said, "As your Father in heaven is perfect, be ye 
also perfect." He set that up as a standard, and he who did most 
toward reaching that standard attained the highest degi'ee of moral 
perfection. So I say in relation to the principle that all men are 



260 ADDIIESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

created equal, let it be as nearly reached as we can. If we cannot 
give freedom to every creature, let us do nothing that will impose 
slavery upon any other creature. Let us then turn this government 
back into the channel in which the framers of the Constitution 
originally placed it. Let us stand firmly by each other. If we do 
not do so, we are tending in the contrary direction that our friend 
Judge Douglas proposes — not intentionally — working in the traces 
that tend to make this one universal slave nation. He is one that 
runs in that direction, and as such I resist him. 

My friends, I have detained you about as long as I desired to do, 
and I have only to say, let us discard all this quibbling about this 
man and the other man, this race and that race and the other race 
being inferior, and therefore they must be placed in an inferior 
position. Lot us discard all these things, and unite as one people 
throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring 
that all men are created equal. 

My friends, I could not, without launching off upon some new 
topic, Avhich would detain you too long, continue to-night. I thank 
you for this most extensive audience that you have furnished me to- 
night. I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in 
your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are 
created free and equal. 



July 17, 1858. — Speech at Springfield, Illinois. 

Fellow-citizens : Another election, which is deemed an important 
one, is approaching; and, as I suppose, the Republican party will 
without much difficulty elect their State ticket. But in regard to 
the legislature, we, the Republicans, labor under some disadvantages. 
In the first place, we have a legislature to elect upon an apportion- 
ment of the representation made several years ago, when the pro- 
portion of the population was far greater in the South (as compared 
with the North) than it now is; and inasmuch as our opponents hold 
almost entire sway in the South, and we a correspondingly large 
majority in the North, the fact that we are now to be represented 
as we were years ago, when the population was different, is to us a 
very great disadvantage. We had in the year 1855, according t() 
law, a census or enumeration of the inhabitants taken for the purpose 
of a new apportionment of representation. We know what a fair 
apportionment of representation upon tliat census would give us. 
We know that it could not, if fairly made, fail to give the Republican 
party from six to ten more members of the legislature than they can 
probably get as the law now stands. It so happened at the last session 
of the legislature, that our opponents, holding the control of both 
branches of the legislature, steadily refused to give us such an appor- 
tionment as we were rightly entitled to have upon the census already 
taken. The legislature steadily refused to give us such an apportion- 
ment as we were rightfully entitled to have upon the census taken of 
the population of the State. The legislature would pass no bill upon 
that subject, except such as was at least as unfair to us as the old one. 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 261 

and in which, in some instances, two men iu the Democratic regions 
were allowed to go as far toward sending a member to the legislature 
as three were in the Republican regions. Comparison was made at 
the time as to representative and senatorial districts, which com- 
pletely demonstrated that such was the fact. Such a bill was passed 
and tendered to the Republican governor for his signature; but, 
principally for the reasons I have stated, he withheld his approval, 
and the bill fell without becoming a law. 

Another disadvantage under which we labor is that there are one 
or two Democratic senators who will be members of the next le- 
gislature, and will vote for the election of senator, who are holding 
over in districts in which we could, on all reasonable calculation, elect 
men of our own, if we only had the chance of an election. When 
we consider that there are but twenty-five senators in the Senate, 
taking two from the side where they rightfully belong, and adding 
them to the other, is to us a disadvantage not to be lightly regarded. 
Still, so it is ; we have this to contend with. Perhaps there is no 
ground of complaint on our part. In attending to the many things 
involved in the last general election for president, governor, auditor, 
treasurer, superintendent of public instruction, members of con- 
gress, of the legislature, county officers, and so on, we allowed these 
things to happen by want of sufficient attention, and we have no 
cause to complain of our adversaries, so far as this matter is con- 
cerned. But we have some cause to complain of the refusal to give 
us a fair apportionment. 

There is still another disadvantage under which we labor, and to 
which I will ask your attention. It arises out of the relative posi- 
tions of the two persons wlio stand before the State as candidates 
for the Senate. Senator Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the 
anxious politicians of his party, or who have been of his party for 
years past, have been looking upon him as certainly, at no distant 
day, to be the President of the United States. They have seen in 
his round, jolly, fruitful face, post-offices, land-offices, marshalships 
and cabinet appointments, charg^ships and foreign missions, burst- 
ing and sprouting out in wonderful exuberance, ready to be laid 
hold of by their greedy hands. And as they have been gazing upon 
this attractive picture so long, they cannot, in the little distraction 
that has taken place in the party, bring themselves to give up the 
charming hope ; but with greedier anxiety they rush about him, sus- 
tain him, and give him marches, triumphal entries, and receptions 
beyond what even in the days of his highest prosperity they could 
have brought about in his favor. On the contrary, nobody has ever 
expected me to be President. In my poor, lean, lank face nobody 
has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting out. These are 
disadvantages all, taken together, that the Republicans labor under. 
We have to fight this battle upon principle, and upon principle alone. 
I am, in a certain sense, made the standard-bearer in behalf of the 
Republicans. I was made so merely because there had to be some one 
so placed, I being in no wise preferable to any other one of the twenty- 
five, perhaps a hundi-ed, we have in the Republican ranks. Then I 
say I msh it to be distinctly understood and borne in mind, that 



262 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

we have to fight this battle without many — perhaps without any — 
of the external aids which are brought to bear against us. So I hope 
those with whom I am surrounded have principle enough to nerve 
themselves for the task, and leave nothing undone that can be fairly 
done to Ijring about the right result. 

After Senator Douglas left Washington, as his movements were 
made known by the public prints, he tarried a considerable time in the 
city of New York ; and it was heralded that, like another Napoleon, 
he was lying b}' and framing the plan of his campaign. It was 
telegraphed to Washington City, and published in the " Union," that 
he was framing his plan for the purpose of going to Illinois to 
pounce upon and annihilate the treasonable and disunion speech 
which Lincoln had made here on the 16th of June. Now, I do sup- 
pose that the judge really spent some time in New York maturing 
the plan of the campaign, as his friends heralded for him. I have 
been able, by noting his movements since his arrival in Illinois, to 
discover evidences confirmatory of that allegation. I think I have 
been able to see what are the material points of that plan. I will, for 
a little while, ask your attention to some of them. What I shall 
point out, though not showing the whole plan, are nevertheless the 
main points, as I suppose. 

They are not very numerous. The first is popular sovereignty. 
The second and third are attacks upon my speech made on the 16th 
of June. Out of these three points — drawing within the range of 
popular sovereignty the question of the Lecomptou constitution — 
he makes his principal assault. Upon these his successive speeches 
are substantially one and the same. On this matter of popular sov- 
ereignty I wish to be a little careful. Auxiliary to these main points, 
to be sure, are their thunderings of cannon, their marching and 
music, their fizzle-gigs and fireworks; but I will not waste time 
with them. They are but the little trappings of the campaign. 

Coming to the substance, the first point, ''popular sovereignty." 
It is to be labeled upon the cars in which he travels ; put upon the 
hacks he rides m ; to be flaunted upon the arches he passes under, 
and the banners which wave over him. It is to be dished up in as 
many varieties as a French cook can produce soups from potatoes. 
Now, as this is so great a staple of the plan of the campaign, it is 
worth while to examine it carefully ; and if we examine only a very 
little, and do not allow ourselves to be misled, we shall be able to 
see that the whole thing is the most arrant quixotism that was ever 
enacted before a community. What is the matter of popular sov- 
ereignty ? The first thing, in order to understand it, is to get a good 
definition of what it is, and after that to see how it is applied. 

I suppose almost every one knows that, in this controversy, what- 
ever has been said has had reference to the question of negro 
slavery. We have not been in a controversy about the right of the 
people to govern themselves in the ordinary matters of domestic 
concern in the States and Territories. Mr. Buchanan, in one of his 
late messages (I think when he sent up the Lecompton constitution), 
urged that the main point of public attention was not in regard to 
the great variety of small domestic matters, but was directed to 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 263 

the question of negro slavery; and he asserts that if the people had 
had a fair chance to vote on that question, there was no reasonable 
ground of objection in regard to minor questions. Now, while I 
think that the people had not had given, or offered them, a fair 
chance upon that slavery question, still, if there had been a fair 
submission to a vote upon that main question, the President's pro- 
position would have been true to the uttermost. Hence, when here- 
after I speak of popular sovereignty, I wish to be understood as 
applying what I say to the question of slavery only, not to other 
minor domestic matters of a Territory or a State. 

Does Judge Douglas, when he says that several of the past years 
of his life have been devoted to the question of "popular sover- 
eignty," and that all the remainder of his life shall be devoted to it, 
does he mean to say that he has been devoting his life to securing 
to the people of the Territories the right to exclude slavery from 
the Territories? If he means so to say, he means to deceive; be- 
cause he and every one knows that the decision of the Supreme 
Court, which he approves and makes especial ground of attack upon 
me for disapproving, forbids the people of a Territory to exclude 
slavery. This covers the whole ground, from the settlement of a 
Territory till it reaches the degree of maturity entitling it to form 
a State constitution. So far as all that ground is concerned, the 
judge is not sustaining popular sovereignty, but absolutely oppos- 
ing it. He sustains the decision which declares that the popular 
wm of the Territories has no constitutional power to exclude 
slavery during their territorial existence. This being so, the period 
of time from the first settlement of a Territory till it reaches the 
point of forming a State constitution is not the thing that the 
^udge has fought for, or is fighting for; but on the contrary, he has 
fought for, and is fighting for the thing that annihilates and crushes 
out that same popular sovereignty. 

Well, so much being disposed of, what is left? Why, he is con- 
tending for the right of the people, when they come to make a State 
constitution, to make it for themselves, and precisely as best suits 
themselves. I say again, that is quixotic. I defy contradiction 
when I declare that the judge can find no one to oppose him on that 
proposition. I repeat, there is nobody opposing that proposition on 
principle. Let me not be misunderstood. I know that, with refer- 
ence to the Lecompton constitution, I may be misunderstood ; but 
when you understand me correctly, my proposition will be true and 
accurate. Nobody is opposing, or has opposed, the right of the peo- 
ple, when they form a constitution, to form it for themselves. Mr. 
Buchanan and his friends have not done it ; they, too, as well as the 
Republicans and the Anti-Lecompton Democrats, have not done it ; 
but, on the contrary, they together have insisted on the right of the 
people to form a constitution for themselves. The difference be- 
tween the Buchanan men on the one hand, and the Douglas men 
and the Republicans on the other, has not been on a question of 
principle, but on a question of fact. 

The dispute was upon the question of fact, whether the Lecomp- 
ton constitution had been fairly formed by the people or not, Mr. 



26:1: ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Buchauan and his friends have not contended for the contrary prin- 
ciple any more than the Douglas men or the Republicans. They 
have insisted that whatever of small irregularities existed in getting 
up the Leeompton constitution were such as happen in the settle- 
ment of all new Territories. The question was, was it a fair emana- 
tion of the people? It was a question of fact and not of principle. 
As to the principle, all were agreed. Judge Douglas voted with the 
Republicans upon that matter of fact. 

He and they, by their voices and votes, denied that it was a fair 
emanation of the people. The administration affirmed that it was. 
With respect to the evidence bearing upon that question of fact, I 
readily agree that Judge Douglas and the Republicans had the right 
on their side, and that the administration was wrong. But I state 
again that, as a matter of principle, there is no dispute upon the 
right of a people in a Territory merging into a State to form a 
constitution for themselves without outside interference from any 
quarter. This being so, what is Judge Douglas going to spend his 
life for"? Does he expect to stand up in majestic dignity, and go 
through his apotheosis and become a god, in the maintaining of a 
principle which neither man nor mouse in all God's creation is op- 
posing? Now something in regard to the Leeompton constitution 
more specially ; for I pass from this other question of popular sov- 
ereignty as the most arrant humbug that has ever been attempted 
on an intelligent community. 

As to the Leeompton constitution, I have already said that on the 
question of fact as to whether it was a fair emanation of the people 
or not. Judge Douglas with the Republicans and some "Americans" 
had greatly the argument against the administration ; and while I 
repeat this, I wish to know what there is in the opposition of Judge 
Douglas to the Leeompton constitution that entitles him to be con- 
sidered the only opponent to it — as being jjrtr fxcf'ZZfwee the verj^ 
quintessence of that opposition. I agree to the rightfulness of his 
opposition. lie in the Senate, and his class of men there, formed 
the number three and no more. In the House of Representatives 
his class of men — the Anti-Lecomptou Democrats — formed a 
number of about twenty. It took one hundred and twenty to defeat 
the measure, against one hundred and twelve. Of the v»tes of that 
one hundred and twenty. Judge Douglas's friends furnished twenty, 
to add to which there were six Americans and ninety-four Republi- 
cans, I do not say that I am precisely accurate in their numbers, 
but I am sufficiently so for any use I am making of it. 

Why is it that twenty shall be entitled to all the credit of doing 
that work, and the hundred none of it ? Why, if, as Judge Douglas 
says, the honor is to be divided and due credit is to be given to 
other parties, why is just so much given as is consonant with the 
wishes, the interests, and advancement of the twenty? My under- 
standing is, when a common job is done, or a common entei-prise 
prosecuted, if I put in five dollars to your one, I have a right to 
take out five dollars to your one. But he does not so understand it. 
He declares the dividend of credit for defeating Leeompton upon a 
basis which seems unprecedented and incomprehensible. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 265 

Let us see. Lecompton in the raw was defeated. It afterward 
took a sort of cooked-up shape, and was passed in the English bill. 
It is said by the judge that the defeat was a good and proper thing. 
If it was a good thing, why is he entitled to more credit than others 
for the performance of that good act, unless there was something 
in the antecedents of the Republicans that might induce every one 
to expect them to join in that good work, and at the same time 
something leading them to doubt that he would I Does he place his 
superior claim to credit on the ground that he performed a good act 
which was never expected of himf He says I have a proneness for 
quoting scripture. If I should do so now, it occurs that perhaps he 
places himself somewhat upon the ground of the parable of tlie lost 
sheep which went astray upon the mountains, and when the owner 
of the hundred sheep found the one that was lost, and threw it upon 
his shoulders, and came home rejoicing, it was said that there was 
more rejoicing over the one sheep that was lost and had been found, 
than over the ninety and nine in the fold. The application is made 
by the Saviour in this parable, thus : ''Verily, I say unto you, there 
is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, than 
over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance." 

And now, if the judge claims the benefit of this parable, let him 
repent. Let him not come up here and say: " I am the only just per- 
son; and you are the ninety-nine sinners !" Repentance before for- 
giveness is a provision of the Christian system, and on that condition 
alone will the Republicans grant him forgiveness. 

How will he prove that we have ever occupied a different position 
in regard to the Lecompton constitution or any principle in it '? He 
says he did not make his opposition on the ground as to whether it 
was a free or slave constitution, and he would have you understand 
that the Republicans made their opposition because it ultimately be- 
came a slave constitution. To make proof in favor of himself on this 
point, he reminds us that he opposed Lecompton before the vote was 
taken declaring whether the State was to be free or slave. But he 
forgets to say that our Republican senator, Trumbull, made a speech 
against Lecompton even before he did. 

Why did he oppose it? Partly, as he declares, because the mem- 
bers of the convention who framed it were not fairly elected by the 
people ; that the people were not allowed to vote unless they had been 
registered ; and that the people of whole counties, in some instances, 
were not registered. For these reasons he declares the constitution 
was not an emanation, in any true sense, from the people. He also 
has an additional objection as to the mode of submitting the consti- 
tution back to the people. But bearing on the question of whether 
the delegates were fairly elected, a speech of his, made something 
more than twelve months ago from this stand, becomes important. 
It was made a little while before the election of the delegates who 
made Lecompton. In that speech he declared there was every reason 
to hope and believe the election would be fair, and if any one failed 
to vote it would be his own culpable fault. 

I, a few days after, made a sort of answer to that speech. In that 
answer I made substantially the very argument with which he com- 



266 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

bated his Lecompton adversaries in the Senate last winter. I pointed 
to the facts that the people could not vote without being registered, 
and that the time for registering had gone by. I commented on it 
as wonderful that Judge Douglas could be ignorant of these facts, 
which every one else in the nation so well knew. 

I now pass from popular sovereignty and Lecompton. I may have 
occasion to refer to one or both. 

When he was preparing his plan of campaign, Napoleon-like, in 
New York, as appears by two speeches I have heard him deliver since 
his arrival in Illiuois, he gave special attention to a speech of mine 
delivered here on the 16th of June last. He says that he carefully 
read that speech. He told us that at Chicago a week ago last night, 
and he repeated it at Bloomington last night. Doubtless he repeated 
it again to-day, though I did not hear him. In the two first places — 
Chicago and Bloomington — I heard him ; to-day I did not. He said 
he had carefully examined that speech; when, he did not say; but 
there is no reasonable doubt it was when he was in New York pre- 
paring his plan of campaign. I am glad he did read it caref ulljr. He 
says it was evidently prepared with great care. I freely admit it was 
prepared with care. I claim not to be more free from errors than 
others — perhaps scarcely so much ; but I was very careful not to put 
anything in that speech as a matter of fact, or make any inferences 
which did not appear to me to be true and fully warrantable. If I 
had made any mistake I was willing to be corrected ; if I had drawn 
any inference in regai'd to Judge Douglas, or any one else, which was 
not warranted, I was fully prepared to modify it as soon as discovered. 
I planted myself upon the truth and the truth only, so far as I knew 
it, or could be brought to know it. 

Having made that speech with the most kindly feelings toward 
Judge Douglas, as manifested therein, I was gratified when I found 
that he had carefully examined it, and had detected no error of fact, 
nor any inference against him, nor any misrepresentations, of which 
he thought fit to complain. In neither of the two speeches I have 
mentioned, did he make any such complaint. I will thank any one 
who will inform me that he, in his speech to-day, pointed out any- 
thing I had stated, respecting him, as being erroneous. I presume 
there is no such thing. I have reason to be gratified that the care 
and caution used in that speech left it so that he, most of all others 
interested in discovering error, has not been able to point out one 
thing against him which he could say was wrong. He seizes upon 
the doctrines he supposes to be included in that speech, and de- 
clares that upon them will turn the issues of the campaign. He 
then quotes, or attempts to quote, from my speech. I will not say 
that he wilfully misquotes, but he does fail to quote accurately. 
His attempt at quoting is from a passage which I believe I can quote 
accurately from memory. I shall make the quotation now, with 
some comments upon it, as I have already said, in order that the 
judge shall be left entirely without excuse for misrepresenting me. 
I do so now, as I hope, for the last time. I do this in great caution, 
in order that if he repeats his misrepresentation, it shall be plain to 
all that he does so wilfully. If, after all, he stiU persists, I shall be 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 267 

compelled to reconstruct the course I have marked out for myself, and 
draw upon such humble resources as I have for a new course, better 
suited to the real exigencies of the case. I set out, in this campaign, 
with the intention of conducting it strictly as a gentleman, in sub- 
stance at least, if not in the outside polish. The latter I shall 
never be, but that which constitutes the inside of a gentleman I 
hope I understand, and am not less inclined to practise than others. 
It was my purpose and expectation that this canvass would be con- 
ducted upon principle, and with fairness on both sides, and it shall 
not be my fault if this purpose and expectation shall be given up. 

He charges, in substance, that I invite a war of sections ; that I 
propose all local institutions of the different States shall become 
c{msolidated and uniform. What is there in the language of that 
speech which expresses such purpose or bears such construction ? 
I have again and again said that I would not enter into any of the 
States to disturb the institution of slavery. Judge Douglas said, 
at Bloomington, that I used language most able and ingenious for 
concealing what I really meant; and that while I had protested 
against entering into the slave States, I nevertheless did mean to go 
on the banks of the Ohio and throw missiles into Kentucky, to dis- 
turb them in theu* domestic institutions. 

I said in that speech, and I meant no more, that the institution of 
slavery ought to be placed in the very attitude where the framers of 
this government placed it and left it. I do not understand that the 
framers of our Constitution left the people in the free States in the 
attitude of fii'ing bombs or shells into the slave States. I was not using 
that passage for the purpose for which he infers I did use it. I said : 

We are now far advanced into the fifth year since a poUcy was created 
for the avowed object and with the confident promise of putting an end to 
slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy that agitation has 
not only ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion it will not 
cease tul a crisis shall have been reached and passed. ^'A house divided 
against itself cannot stand." I beheve that this government cannot endure 
permanently half slave and half free. It will become all one thing or all 
the other. Either the opponents of slaveiy will arrest the further spread 
of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in. the belief that it is in 
the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward till 
it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as 
well as South. 

Now you all see, from that quotation, I did not express my wish 
on anything. In that passage I indicated no wish or purpose of my 
own; I simply expressed my expectation. Cannot the judge per- 
ceive a distinction between a purpose and an expectation ? I have 
often expressed an expectation to die, but I have never expressed a 
wish to die. I said at Chicago, and now repeat, that I am quite 
aware this government has endured half slave and half fi-ee for 
eighty-two years. I understand that little bit of history. I expressed 
the opinion I did, because I perceived — or thought I perceived — anew 
set of causes introduced. I did say at Chicago, in my speech there, 
that I do wish to see the spread of slavery arrested, and to see it 
placed where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the 



268 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OP ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

course of ultimate extinctiou. I said that because I supposed, when 
the public miud shall rest in that belief, we shall have peace on the 
slavery question. I have believed — and now believe — the public mind 
did rest in that belief up to the introduction of the Nebraska bill. 

Although I have ever been opposed to slavery, so far I rested 
in the hope and belief that it was in the course of ultimate extinc- 
tion. For that reason, it had been a minor question with me. I 
might have been mistaken ; but I had believed, and now beheve, 
that the whole public mind, that is, the mind of the great majority, 
had rested in that belief up to the repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
mise. But upon that event, I became convinced that either I had 
been resting in a delusion, or the institution was being placed on a 
new basis — a basis for making it perpetual, national, and universal. 
Subsequent events have greatly confirmed me in that belief. I be- 
lieve that bill to be the beginning of a conspiracy for that purpose. 
So believing, I have since then considered that question a paramount 
one. So believing, I think the public mind will never rest till the 
power of Congress to restrict the spread of it shall again be ac- 
knowledged and exercised on the one hand, or, on the other, all re- 
sistance be entirely crushed out. I have expressed that opinion, 
and I entertain it to-night. It is denied that there is any tendency 
to the nationalization of slavery in these States. 

Mr. Brooks, of South Carolina, in one of his speeches, when they 
were presenting him canes, silver plate, gold pitchers and the like, 
for assaulting Senator Sumner, distinctly affirmed his opinion that 
when this Constitution was formed, it was the belief of no man 
that slavery would last to the present day. 

He said, what I think, that the framers of our Constitution placed 
the institution of slavery where the public mind rested in the hope 
that it was in the course of ultimate extinction. But he went on to 
say that the men of the present age, by their experience, have be- 
come wiser than the framers of the Constitution ; and the invention 
of the cotton-gin had made the perpetuity of slavery a necessity in 
this country. 

As another piece of evidence tending to this same point. Quite 
recently in Virginia, a man — the owner of slaves — made a will 
providing that after his death certain of his slaves should have their 
freedom if they should so choose, and go to Liberia, rather than re- 
main in slavery. They chose to be liberated. But the persons to 
whom they would descend as property claimed them as slaves. A 
suit was instituted, which finally came to the Supreme Court of Vir- 
ginia, and was therein decided against the slaves, upon the ground 
that a negro cannot make a choice — that they had no legal power 
to choose — could not perform the condition upon which their free- 
dom depended. 

I do not mention this with any purpose of criticizing it, but to 
connect it with the arguments as aifording additional evidence of 
the change of sentiment upon this question of slavery in the direc- 
tion of making it perpetual and national. I argue now as I did be- 
fore, that there is such a tendency, and I am backed not merely by 
the facts, but by the open confession in the slave States. 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 2(39 

And now, as to the judge's inference, that because I wish to see 
slavery placed in the course of ultimate extinction — placed where 
our fathers originally placed it — I wish to annihilate the State leg- 
islatures — to force cotton to grow upon the tops of the Green 
Mountains — to freeze ice in Florida — to cut lumber on the broad 
Illinois prairies — that I am in favor of all these ridiculous and im- 
possible things. 

It seems to me it is a complete answer to all this to ask, if, when 
Congress did have the fashion of restricting slavery from free terri- 
tory, when courts did have the fashion of deciding that taking a 
slave into a free country made him free — I say it is a sufficient 
answer to ask, if any of this ridiculous nonsense about consoli- 
dation and uniformity did actually follow? Who heard of any 
such thing, because of the ordinance of '87? because of the Mis- 
souri Restriction ? because of the numerous court decisions of that 
character ? 

Now, as to the Dred Scott decision ; for upon that he makes his 
last point at me. He boldly takes ground in favor of that decision. 
This is one half the onslaught, and one third of the entire plan 
of the campaign. I am opposed to that decision in a certain sense, 
but not in the sense which he puts on it. I say that in so far as it 
decided in favor of Dred Scott's master, and against Dred Scott and 
his family, I do not propose to disturb or resist the decision. 

I never have proposed to do any such thing. I think that in re- 
spect for judicial authority, my humble history would not suffer in 
comparison with that of Judge Douglas. He would have the citizen 
conform his vote to that decision ; the member of Congress, his ; the 
President, his use of the veto power. He would make it a rule of po- 
litical action for the people and all the departments of the govern- 
ment. I would not. By resisting it as a political rule, I disturb no 
right of property, create no disorder, excite no mobs. 

When he spoke at Chicago, on Friday evening of last week, he made 
this same point upon me. On Saturday evening I replied, and re- 
minded him of a Supreme Court decision which he opposed for at 
least several years. Last night, at Bloomington, he took some notice 
of that reply, but entirely forgot to remember that part of it. 

He renews his onslaught upon me, forgetting to rernember that I 
have turned the tables against himself on that very point. I renew 
the effort to draw his attention to it. I wish to stand erect before 
the country, as well as Judge Douglas, on this question of judicial 
authority, and therefore I add something to the authority in favor 
of my own position. I wish to show that I am sustained by authority, 
in ad'^dition to that heretofore presented. I do not expect to convince 
the judge. It is part of the plan of his campaign, and he will cling 
to it with a desperate grip. Even turn it upon him — the sharp 
point against him, and gaff him through— he will still cling to it till 
he can invent some new dodge to take the place of it. 

In public speaking it is tedious reading from documents, but I 
must beg to indulge the practice to a limited extent. I shall read 
from a letter written by Mr. Jefferson in 1820, and now to be found 
in the seventh volume of his correspondence, at page 177. It seems 



270 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

he had been presented by a gentleman of the name of Jarvis with a 
book, or essay, or periodical, called the " Republican," and he was 
writing in acKnowledgment of the present, and noting some of its 
contents. After expressing the hope that the work will produce a 
favorable effect upon the minds of the young, he proceeds to say : 

That it will have this tendency may be expected, and for that reason I feel 
an urgency to note what I deem an error in it, the more requiring notice as 
your opinion is strengthened by that of many others. You seem, in pages 84 
and 148, to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional 
questions — a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place 
us under the despotism of an ohgarchy. Our judges are as honest as other 
men, and not more so. They have, with others, the same passions for party, 
for power, and the privilege of their corps. Their maxim is, " JBo«i judicis 
est ampliare JHrisdicHonem'''' ; and their power is the more dangerous as they 
are in office for life, and not responsible, as the other functionaries are, to 
the elective control. The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, 
knowing that, to whatever hands confided, with the con'uptions of time and 
party, its members would become despots. It has more wisely made all the 
departments co-equal and co-sovereign within themselves. 

Thus we see the power claimed for the Supreme Court by Judge 
Douglas, Mr, Jefferson holds, would reduce us to the despotism of an 
oligarchy. 

Now, I have said no more than this — in fact, never quite so much 
as this — at least I am sustained by Mr. Jefferson. 

Let us go a little further. You remember we once had a national 
bank. Some one owed the bank a debt; he was sued and sought to 
avoid payment, on the ground that the bank was unconstitutional. 
The case went to the Supreme Court, and therein it was decided that 
the bank was constitutional. The whole Democratic party revolted 
against that decision. General Jackson himself asserted that he, as 
President, would not be bound to hold a national bank to be consti- 
tutional, even though the court had decided it to be so. He fell in 
precisely with the view of Mr. Jefferson, and acted upon it under his 
official oath, in vetoing a charter for a national bank. The declara- 
tion that Congress does not possess this constitutional power to char- 
ter a bank, has gone into the Democratic platform, at their national 
conventions, and was brought forward and reaffirmed in their last 
convention at Cincinnati. They have contended for that declaration, 
in the very teeth of the Supreme Court, for more than a quarter of a 
century. In fact, they have reduced the decision to an absolute nullity. 
That decision, I repeat, is repudiated in the Cincinnati platform ; and 
still, as if to show that effrontery can go no farther. Judge Douglas 
vaunts, in the very speeches in which he denounces me for opposing 
the Dred Scott decision, that he stands on the Cincinnati platform. 

Now, I wish to know what the judge can charge upon me, with 
respect to decisions of the Supreme Court, which does not lie in 
all its length, breadth, and proportions at his own door. The plain 
truth is simply this : Judge Douglas is for Supreme Court decisions 
when he likes, and against them when he does not like them. He is 
for the Dred Scott decision because it tends to nationalize slavery 
— because it is part of the original combination for that object. It 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 271 

SO happens, singularly enough, that I never stood opposed to a de- 
cision of the Supreme Court till this. On the contrary, I have no 
recollection that he was ever particularly in favor of one till this. 
He never was in favor of any, nor opposed to any, till the present 
one, which helps to nationalize slavery. 

Free men of Sangamon, free men of Illinois, free men everywhere, 
judge ye between him and me upon this issue. 

He says this Dred Scott case is a very small matter at most; that 
it has no practical effect ; that at best, or rather, I suppose, at worst, 
it is but an abstraction. I submit that the proposition that the 
thing which determines whether a man is free or a slave is 
rather concrete than abstract. I think you would conclude that it 
was if your liberty depended upon it, and so would Judge Douglas 
if his liberty depended upon it. But suppose it was on the question 
of spreading slavery over the new Territories that he considers it as 
being merely an abstract matter, and one of no practical impor- 
tance. How has the planting of slavery in new countries always 
been effected ? It has now been decided that slavery cannot be 
kept out of our new Territories by any legal means. In w'hat do 
our new Territories now differ in this respect from the old colonies 
when slavery was first planted within them ? It was planted as Mr. 
Clay once declared, and as history proves true, by individual men in 
spite of the wishes of the people ; the mother government refusing 
to prohibit it, and withholding from the people of the colonies the 
authority to prohibit it for themselves. Mr. Clay says this was one 
of the great and just causes of complaint against Great Britain by 
the colonies, and the best apology we can now make for having the 
institution amongst us. In that precise condition our Nebraska 
politicians have at last succeeded in placing our own new Territories ; 
the government will not prohibit slavery within them, nor allow the 
people to prohibit it. 

I defy anv man to find any difference between the policy which 
originally planted slavery in these colonies and that policy which 
now prevails in our new Territories. If it does not go into them, it 
is only because no indi\'idual wishes it to go. The judge indulged 
himself doubtless, to-day, with the question as to what I am going 
to do with or about the Dred Scott decision. Well, judge, will you 
please tell me what you did about the bank decision ? Will you not 
graciously allow us to do with the Dred Scott decision precisely as 
you did with the bank decision ? You succeeded in breaking down 
the moral effect of that decision ; did you find it necessary to amend 
the Constitution ? or to set up a court of negroes in order to do it ? 

There is one other poiut. Judge Douglas has a very affectionate 
leaning toward the Americans and Old Whigs. Last evening, in a 
sort of weeping tone, he described to us a death-bed scene. He had 
l)een called to the side of Mr. Clay, in his last moments, in order 
that the genius of '' popular sovereignty " might duly descend from 
the dying man and settle upon him, the living and most worthy suc- 
cessor. He could do no less than promise that he would devote the 
remainder of his life to " popular sovereignty " ; and then the great 
statesman departs in peace. By this part of the " plan of the cam- 



272 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

paign," the judge lias evidently promised himself that tears shall be 
drawn down the cheeks of all Old Whigs, as large as half-grown apples. 

Mr. Webster, too, was mentioned ; but it did not quite come to a 
death-bed scene, as to him. It would be amusing, if it were not 
disgusting, to see how quick these compromise-breakers administer 
on the political effects of their dead adversaries, trumping up claims 
never before heard of, and dividing the assets among themselves. 
If I should be found dead to-morrow morning, nothing but my in- 
significance could prevent a speech being made on my authority, 
before the end of next week. It so happens that in that '' popular 
sovereignty" w'ith which Mr. Clay was identified, the Missouri 
Compromise was expressly reserved ; and it was a little singular if 
Mr. Clay cast his mantle upon Judge Douglas on purpose to have 
that compromise repealed. 

Again, the judge did not keep faith with Mr. Clay when he first 
brought in his Nebraska bill. He left the Missouri Compromise un- 
repealed, and in his report accompanying the bill, he told the world 
he did it on purpose. The manes of Mr. Clay must have been in great 
agony, till thirty days later, when *' popular sovereignty " stood forth 
in all its glory. 

One more thing. Last night Judge Douglas tormented himself 
with horrors about my disposition to make negroes perfectly equal 
with white men in social and political relations. He did not stop 
to show that I have said any such thing, or that it legitimately fol- 
lows from anything I have said, but he rushes on with his asser- 
tions. I adhere to the Declaration of Independence. If Judge 
Douglas and his friends are not willing to stand by it, let them 
come up and amend it. Let them make it read that all men are 
created equal, except negroes. Let us have it decided whether the 
Declaration of Independence, in this blessed year of 1858, shall be thus 
amended. In his construction of the Declaration last year, he said 
it only meant that Americans in America were equal to Englishmen 
in England. Then, when I pointed out to him that by that rule he ex- 
cludes the Germans, the Irish, the Portuguese, and all the other peo- 
ple who have come amongst us since the Revolution, he reconstructs 
his construction. In his last speech he tells us it meant Europeans. 

I press him a little further, and ask if it meant to include the Rus- 
sians in Asia? or does he mean to exclude that vast population from 
the principles of our Declaration of Independence? I expect ere 
long he will introduce another amendment to his definition. He is 
not at all particular. He is satisfied with anything which does not 
endanger the nationalizing of negro slavery. It may draw white 
men down, but it must not lift negroes up. Who shall say, "I am 
the superior, and you are the inferior?" 

My declarations upon this subject of negro slavery may be mis- 
represented, but cannot be misunderstood. I have said that I do 
not understand the Declaration to mean that all men were created 
equal in all respects. They are not our equal in color; but I sup- 
pose that it does mean to declare that all men are equal in some 
respects ; they are equal in their right to '' life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness." Certainly the negro is not our equal in color — 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 273 

Eerhaps not in many other respects ; still, in the right to put into 
is mouth the bread that his own hands have earned, he is the equal 
of every other man, white or black. In pointing out that more has 
been given you, you cannot be justified in taking away the little 
which has been given him. All I ask for the negro is that if you 
do not like him, let him alone. If God gave him but little, that 
little let him enjoy. 

When our government was established, we had the institution of 
slaver}' among us. We were in a certain sense compelled to tolerate 
its existence. It was a sort of necessity. We had gone througli 
our struggle, and secured our own independence. The framers of 
the Constitution found the institution of slavery amongst their other 
institutions at the time. They found that by an effort to eradicate 
it, they might lose much of what they had already gained. They 
were obliged to bow to the necessity. They gave power to Congress 
to abolish the slave-trade at the end of twenty years. They also 
prohibited slavery in the Territories where it did not exist. They did 
what they could and yielded to necessity for the rest. I also yield 
to all which follows from that necessity. What I would most desire 
would be the separation of the white and black races. 

One more point on this Springfield speech which Judge Douglas 
says he has read so carefully. I expressed my belief in the exis- 
tence of a conspii-acy to perpetuate and nationalize slavery. I did 
not profess to know it, nor do I now. I showed the part Judge 
Douglas had played in the string of facts, constituting to my mind 
the proof of that conspiracy. I showed the parts played by others. 

I charged that the people had been deceived into carrying the last 
presidential election, by the impression that the people of the Terri- 
tories might exclude slavery if they chose, when it was known in 
advance by the conspirators, that the court was to decide that 
neither Congress nor the people could so exclude slavery. These 
charges are more distinctly made than anything else in the speech. 

Judge Douglas has carefully read and re-read that speech. He 
has not, so far as I know, contradicted those charges. In the two 
speeches which I heard he certainly did not. On his own tacit ad- 
mission I renew that charge. I charge him with having been a 
party to that conspiracy, and to that deception, for the sole purpose 
of nationalizing slavery. 

July 24 to July 31, 1858. — Challenge to the Joint Debates. 

M7\ Lincoln to Mr. Douglas. 

Chicago, Illinois, July 24, 1858. 
Hon. S. a. Douglas. 

My dear Sir: Will it be agreeable to you to make an arrangement 
for you and myself to divide time, and address the same audiences 
the present canvass ? Mr. Judd, who will hand you this, is authorized 
to receive your answer ; and, if agreeable to you, to enter into the 
terms of such arrangement. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 
Vol. I.— 18. 



274 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



Mr. Douglas to Mr. Lincoln. 

Chicago, July 24, 1858. 
Hon. a. Lincoln. 

Dear Sir : Your note of this date, in which you inquire if it would 
be agreeable to me to make an arrangement to divide the time and 
address the same audiences during the present canvass, was handed 
me by Mr. Judd. Recent events have interposed difficulties in the 
way of such an arrangement. 

I went to Springfield last week for the purpose of conferring with 
the Democratic State Central Committee upon the mode of conducting 
the canvass, and with them, and under their advice, made a list of 
appointments covering the entire period until late in October. The 
people of the several localities have been notified of the times and 
places of the meetings. Those appointments have all been made for 
Democratic meetings, and arrangements have been made by which 
the Democratic candidates for Congress, for the legislature, and other 
offices will be present and address the people. It is evident, there- 
fore, that these various candidates, in connection with myself, will 
occupy the whole time of the day and evening, and leave no opportu- 
nity for other speeches. 

Besides, there is another consideration which should be kept in 
mind. It has been suggested recently that an arrangement had been 
made to bring out a third candidate for the United States Senate, 
who, with yourself, should canvass the State in opposition to me, with 
no other purpose than to insure my defeat, J3y dividing the Demo- 
cratic party for your benefit. If I should make this arrangement 
with you, it is more than probable that this other candidate, who 
has a common object with you, would desire to become a party to 
it, and claim the right to speak from the same stand ; so that he 
and you in concert might be able to take the opening and closing 
speech in every case. 

I cannot refrain from expressing my surprise, if it was your original 
intention to invite such an arrangement, that you should have waited 
until after I had made my appointments, inasmuch as we were both 
here in Chicago together for several days after my arrival, and again 
at Bloomington, Atlanta, Lincoln, and Springfield, where it was well 
known I went for the purpose of consulting with the State Central 
Committee, and agreeing upon the plan of the campaign. 

While under these circumstances I do not feel at liberty to make 
any arrangements which would deprive the Democratic candidates 
for Congress, State offices, and the legislature, from participating in 
the discussion at the various meetings designated by the Democratic 
State Central Committee, I will, in order to accommodate you as far as 
it is in my power to do so, take the responsibility of making an arrange- 
ment with you for a discussion between us at one prominent point in 
each congressional district in the State, except the second and sixth 
districts, where we have both spoken, and in each of which cases you 
had the concluding speech. If agreeable to you, I will indicate the 
following places as those most suitable in the several congressional 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 275 

districts at which we should speak, to wit: Freeport, Ottawa, Gales- 
burg, Quincy, Alton, Jonesboro, and Charleston. I will confer with 
you at the earliest convenient opportunity in regard to the mode of 
conducting the debate, the times of meeting at the several places, 
subject to the condition that where appointments have already been 
made by the Democratic State Central Committee at any of those 
places, I must insist upon you meeting me at the time specified, 
very respectfully, your most obedient servant, 

S. A. Douglas. 

Mr. Lincoln to Mr. Douglas. 

Springfield, July 29, 1858. 
Hon. S. a. Douglas. 

Bear Sir : Yours of the 24th in relation to an arrangement to di- 
vide time and address the same audiences is received ; and in 
apology for not sooner replying, allow me to say that when I sat by 
you at dinner yesterday I was not aware that you had answered my 
note, nor certainly that ray own note had been presented to you. 
An hour after I saw a copy of your answer in the Chicago *' Times," 
and reaching home, I found the original awaiting me. Protesting 
that your insinuations of attempted unfairness on my part are un- 
just, and with the hope that you did not very considerately make 
them, I proceed to reply. To your statement that " It has been sug- 
gested recently that an arrangement had been made to bring out a 
third candidate for the United States Senate, who, with yourself, 
should canvass the State in opposition to me," etc., I can only say 
that such suggestion must have been made by yourself, for certainly 
none such has been made by or to me, or otherwise, to my know- 
ledge. Surely you did not deliberately conclude, as you insiniiate, 
that I was expecting to draw you into an arrangement of terms, to 
be agreed on by yourself, by which a third candidate and myself 
" in concert might be able to take the opening and closing speech 
in every case." 

As to yoiu" surprise that I did not sooner make the proposal to 
divide time with you, I can only say I made it as soon as I resolved 
to make it. I did not know but that such proposal would come 
from you ; I waited respectfully to see. It may have been well 
known to you that you went to Springfield for the purpose of agree- 
ing on the plan of campaign; but it was not so known to me. 
When your appointments were announced in the papers, extending 
only to the 21st of August, I for the first time considered it certain 
that you would make no proposal to me, and then resolved that, if 
my friends concurred, I would make one to you. As soon thereafter 
as I could see and consult with friends satisfactorily, I did make 
the proposal. It did not occur to me that the proposed arrangement 
could derange your plans after the latest of your appointments al- 
ready made. After that, there was before the election largely over 
two months of clear time. 

For you to say that we have already spoken at Chicago and 
Springfield, and that on both occasions I had the concluding speech, 



276 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

is hardly a fair statemeut. The truth rather is this: At Chicago, 
July 9, you made a carefully prepared conclusion on my speech of 
June 16. Twenty-four hours after, I made a hasty conclusion on 
yours of the 9th. You had six days to prepare, and concluded on 
me again at Bloomington on the 16th. Twenty-four hours after, I 
concluded again on you at Springfield. In the mean time, you had 
made another conclusion on me at Springfield which I did not hear, 
and of the contents of which I knew nothing when I spoke ; so that 
your speech made in daylight, and mine at night, of the 17th, at 
Springfield, were both made in perfect independence of each other. 
The dates of making all these speeches will show, I think, that in the 
matter of time tor preparation the advantage has all been on your 
side, and that none of the external circumstances have stood to my 
advantage. 

I agree to an arrangement for us to speak at the seven places you 
have named, and at your own times, provided you name the times 
at once, so that I, as well as you, can have to myself the time not 
covered by the arrangement. As to the other details, I wish perfect 
reciprocity, and no more. I wish as much time as you, and that 
conclusions shall alternate. That is all. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 

P. S. As matters now stand, I shall be at no more of your ex- 
clusive meetings ; and for about a week from to-day a letter from 
you will reach me at Springfield. 

A. L. 



Mr. Douglas to Mr. Lincoln. 

Bement, Piatt Co., III., July 30, 1858. 

Bear Sir : Your letter dated yesterday, accepting my proposition 
for a joint discussion at one prominent point in each congressional 
district, as stated in my previous letter, was received this morning. 

The times and places designated are as follows : 

Ottawa, La Salle County August 21, 1858. 

Freeport, Stephenson County " 27, " 

Jonesboro, Union County September 15, " 

Charleston, Coles County " 18, " 

Galesburg, Kuox County October 7, " 

Quincy, Adams County " 13, " 

Alton, Madison County " 15, " 

I agree to your suggestion that we shall alternately open and 
close the discussion. I will speak at Ottawa one hour; you can re- 
ply, occupying an hour and a half, and I will then follow for half 
an hour. At Freeport, you shall open the discussion and speak one 
hour; I will follow for an hour and a half, and you can then reply 
for half an hour. We wiU alternate in like manner in each succes- 
sive place. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

S. A. Douglas. 

Hon. a. Lincoln, Springfield, 111. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 277 

Mr. Lincoln to Mr. Douglas. 

Springfield, July 31, 1858, 
Hon. S. a. Douglas. 

Bear Sir : Yours of yesterday, naming places, times, and terms 
for joint discussions between us, was received this morning. Al- 
though by the terms, as you propose, you take four openings and 
closes to my three, I accede, and thus close the arrangement. I 
direct this to you at Hillsboro, and shall try to have both your letter 
and this appear in the " Journal " and " Register " of Monday morn- 
ing. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 

July 31, 1858. — Letter to H. Asbury. 

Springfield, July 31, 1858. 
Henry Asbury, Esq. 

My dear Sir: Yours of the 28th is received. The points you 
propose to press upon Douglas he will be very hard to get up to, 
but I think you labor under a mistake when you say no one cares 
how he answers. This implies that it is equal with him whether he 
is injured here or at the South. That is a mistake. He cares 
nothing for the South ; he knows he is ah-eady dead there. He only 
leans Southward more to keep the Buchanan party from growing 
in Illinois. You shall have hard work to get him directly to the 
point whether a territorial legislature has or has not the power 
to exclude slavery. But if you succeed in bringing him to it — 
though he will be compelled to say it possesses no such power — he 
will instantly take ground that slavery cannot actually exist in the 
Territories unless the people desire it, and so give it protection by 
territorial legislation. If this offends the South, he will let it offend 
them, as at all events he means to hold on to his chances in Illinois. 
You will soon learn by the papers that both the judge and myself 
are to be in Quincy on the 13th of October, when and where I expect 
the pleasure of seeing you. Yours very truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

August 21, 1858. — First Joint Debate, at Ottawa, Illinois. 

Mr. Dowjlas's Opening Speech. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : I appear before you to-day for the pur- 
pose of discussing the leading political topics which now agitate the 
public mind. By an arrangement between Mr. Lincoln and myself, 
we are present here to-day for the purpose of having a joint discus- 
sion, as the representatives of the two great political parties of the 
State and Union, upon the principles in issue between those parties ; 
and this vast concourse of people shows the deep feeling which per- 
vades the public mind in regard to the questions dividing us. 



278 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Prior to 1854 this country was divided into two great political 
parties, known as the Whig and Democratic parties. Both were 
national and patriotic, advocating principles that were universal in 
their application. An old-line Whig could proclaim his principles 
iu Louisiana and Massachusetts alike. Whig principles had no 
boundary sectional line — they were not limited by the Ohio River, 
nor by the Potomac, nor by the line of the free and slave States, 
but applied and were proclaimed wherever the Constitution ruled or 
the American flag waved over the American soil. So it was, and so 
it is with the great Democratic party, which, from the days of Jeffer- 
son until this period, has proven itself to be the historic party of 
this nation. While the Whig and Democratic parties differed in 
regard to a bank, the tariff, distribution, the specie circular, and the 
subtreasury, they agreed on the great slavery question which now 
agitates the Union. I say that the Whig party and the Democratic 
party agreed on the slavery question, while they differed on those 
matters of expediency to which I have referred. The Whig party 
and the Democratic party jointly adopted the compromise measures 
of 1850 as the basis of a proper and just solution of the slavery 
question iu aU its forms. Clay was the great leader, with Webster 
on his right and Cass on his left, and sustained by the patriots in 
the Whig and Democratic ranks who had devised and enacted the 
compromise measures of 1850. 

In 1851 the Whig party and the Democratic party united in Illi- 
nois in adopting resolutions indorsing and approving the principles 
of the compromise measures of 1850, as the proper adjustment of 
that question. In 1852, when the Whig party assembled in conven- 
tion at Baltimore for the purpose of nominating a candidate for the 
presidency, the first thing it did was to declare the compromise 
measures of 1850, iu substance and in principle, a suitable adjust- 
ment of that question. [Here the speaker was interrupted by loud 
and long-continued applause.] My friends, silence wiU be more ac- 
ceptable to me in the discussion of these questions than applause. 
I desire to address myself to your judgment, your understanding, 
and your consciences, and not to your passions or your enthusiasm. 
When the Democratic convention assembled in Baltimore in the 
same year, for the purpose of nominating a Democratic candidate 
for the presidency, it also adopted the compromise measm-es of 1850 
as the basis of Democratic action. Thus you see that up to 1853-54, 
the Whig party and the Democratic party both stood on the same 
platform with regard to the slavery question. That platform was the 
right of the people of each State and each Territory to decide their 
local and domestic institutions for themselves, subject only to the 
Federal Constitution. 

During the session of Congress of 1853-54, I introduced into the 
Senate of the United States a bill to organize the Territories of 
Kansas and Nebraska on that principle which had been adopted in 
the compromise measures of 1850, approved by the Whig party and 
the Democratic party in Illinois in 1851, and indorsed by the Whig 
party and the Democratic party iu national convention in 1852. In 
order that there might be no misunderstanding in relation to the 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 279 

principle involved in the Kansas and Nebraska bill, I put forth the 
true intent and meaning of the act in these words: ''It is the true 
intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any State 
or Territory, or to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof 
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their 
own way, subject only to the Federal Constitution." Thus you see 
that up to 1854, when the Kansas and Nebraska bill was brought into 
Congress for the purpose of carrying out the principles whicli both 
parties had up to that time indorsed and approved, there had been no 
division in this country in regard to that principle except the opposi- 
tion of the Abolitionists. In the House of Representatives of the Illi- 
nois legislature, upon a resolution asserting that principle, every Whig 
and every Democrat in the House voted in the affirmative, and only 
four men voted against it, and those four were old-line Abolitionists. 
In 1854 Mr. Abraham Lincoln and Mr. Ljmian Trumbull entered 
into an arrangement, one with the other, and each with his respective 
friends, to dissolve the Old Whig party on the one hand, and to dis- 
solve the old Democratic party on the other, and to connect the 
members of both into an Abolition party, under the name and dis- 
guise of a Republican party. The terms of that arrangement between 
Lincoln and Trumbull have been published by Lincoln's special 
friend, James H. Matheny, Esq., and they were that Lincoln should 
have General Shields's place in the United States Senate, which was 
then about to become vacant, and that Trumbull should have my 
seat when my term expired. Lincoln went to work to Abolitionize 
the Old Whig party all over the State, pretending that he was then as 
good a Whig as ever; and Trumbull went to work in his part of the 
State preaching Abolitionism in its milder and lighter form, and try- 
ing to Abolitionize the Democratic party, and bring old Democrats 
handcuffed and bound hand and foot into the Abolition camp. In 
pursuance of the arrangement, the parties met at Springfield in Oc- 
tober, 1854, and proclaimed their new platform. Lincoln was to 
bring into the Abolition camp the old-line Whigs, and transfer them 
over to Giddings, Chase, Fred Douglass, and Parson Lovejoy, who 
were ready to receive them and christen them in their new faith. 
They laid down on that occasion a platform for their new Republican 
party, which was thus to be constructed. I have the resolutions of 
the State convention then held, which was the first mass State conven- 
tion ever held in Illinois by the Black Republican party, and I now 
hold them in my hands and will read a part of them, and cause the 
others to be printed. Here are the most important and material reso- 
lutions of this Abolition platform : 

1. Besolved, That we believe this truth to be self-evident, that when par- 
ties become subversive of the ends for wliich they are established, or in- 
capable of restoi'ing the government to the true principles of the Constitu- 
tion, it is the right and duty of the people to dissolve the political bands 
by which they may have been connected therewith, and to organize new par- 
ties upon such principles and with such views as the circumstances and 
the exigencies of the nation may demand. 

2. Resolved, That the times imperatively demand the reorganization of 
parties, and, repudiating all previous party attachments, names and predi- 



280 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

lections, we unite ourselves together in defense of the Uberty and Constitu- 
tion of the country, and will hereafter cooperate as the Republican party, 
pledged to the accomplishment of the following purposes : To bring the 
administration of the government back to the control of first principles ; 
to restore Nebraska and Kansas to the position of free Territories ; that, 
as the Constitution of the United States vests in the States, and not in Con- 
gress, the power to legislate for the extradition of fugitives from labor, to 
repeal and entirely abrogate the fugitive -slave law ; to restrict slavery to 
those States in which it exists ; to prohibit the admission of any more slave 
States into the Union ; to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia ; to 
exclude slavery from all the Territories over which tlie general government 
has exclusive jurisdiction; and to resist the acquirement of any more 
Territories unless the practice of slavei'y therein forever shall have been 
prohibited. 

3. Resolved, Tliat in furtherance of these principles we will use such con- 
stitutional and lawfid means as shall seem best adapted to their accomplish- 
ment, and that we wiU support no man for office, under the general or 
State government, who is not positively and fuUy committed to the support 
of these principles, and whose personal character and conduct is not a 
guaranty that he is reliable, and who shall not have abjured old party 
allegiance and ties. 

Now, gentlemen, your Black Republicans have cheered every one 
of those propositions, and yet I venture to say that you cannot get 
Mr, Lincoln to come out and say that he is now in favor of each one 
of them. That these propositions, one and all, constitute the plat- 
form of the Black Republican party of this day, I have no doubt ; 
and when you were not aware for what purpose I was reading them, 
your Black Republicans cheered them as good Black Republican 
doctrines. My object in reading these resolutions was to put the 
question to Abraham Lincoln this day, whether he now stands and 
will stand by each article in that creed, and carry it out. I desire 
to know whether Mr. Lincoln to-day stands as he did in 1854, in 
favor of the unconditional repeal of the fugitive-slave law. I 
desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to-day, as he did in 
1854, against the admission of any more slave States into the Union, 
even if the people want them. I want to know whether he stands 
pledged against the admission of a new State into the Union with 
such a constitution as the people of that State may see fit to make. 
I want to know whether he stands to-day pledged to the abolition of 
slavery in the District of Columbia. I desire him to answer whether 
he stands pledged to the prohibition of the slave-trade between the 
different States. I desire to know whether he stands pledged to 
prohibit slavery in all the Territories of the United States, North as 
well as South of the Missouri Compromise line. I desire him to 
answer whether he is opposed to the acquisition of any more territor}' 
unless slavery is prohibited therein. I want his answer to these 
questions. Your affirmative cheers in favor of this Abolition plat- 
form are not satisfactor3\ I ask Abraham Lincoln to answer these 
questions, in order that when I trot him down to lower Egypt, I 
may put the same questions to him. My principles are the same 
everywhere. I can proclaim them alike' in the North, the South, 
the East, and the West. My principles will apply wherever the 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 281 

Constitution prevails and the American flag waves. I desire to know 
whether Mr. Lincoln's principles will bear transplanting from Ot- 
tawa to Jonesboro "? I put these questions to him to-day distinctly, 
and ask an answer. I have a right to an answer, for I quote from 
the platform of the Republican party, made by himself and others 
at the time that party was formed, and the bargain made by Lincoln 
to dissolve and kill the Old Whig party, and transfer its members, 
loound hand and foot, to the Abolition party, under the direction of 
Giddings and Fred Douglass. In the remarks I have made on this 
platform, and the position of Mr. Lincoln upon it, I mean nothing 
personally disrespectful or unkind to that gentleman. I have known 
him for nearly twenty-five years. There were many points of sym- 
pathy between us when we first got acquainted. We were both 
comparatively boys, and both struggling with poverty in a strange 
land. I was a school-teacher in the town of Winchester, and he a 
flourishing grocery -keeper in the town of Salem. He was more suc- 
cessful in his occupation than I was in mine, and hence more fortu- 
nate in this world's goods. Lincoln is one of those peculiar men who 
perform with admirable skill everything which they undertake. I 
made as good a school-teacher as I could, and when a cabinet-maker 
I made a good bedstead and tables, although my old boss said I 
succeeded better with bureaus and secretaries than with anything 
else ; but I believe that Lincoln was always more successful in bus- 
iness than I, for his business enabled him to get into the legislature. 
I met him there, however, and had sympathy with him, because of 
the up-hill struggle we both had in life. He was then just as good 
at telling an anecdote as now. He could beat any of the boys 
wrestling, or running a foot-race, in pitching quoits or tossing a 
copper ; could ruin more liquor than all the boys of the town together, 
and the dignity and impartiality with which he presided at a horse- 
race or fist-fight excited the admiration and won the praise of 
everybody that was present and participated. I sympathized with 
him because he was struggling with difficulties, and so was I. Mr. 
Lincoln served with me in the legislature in 1836, when we both 
retired, and he subsided, or became submerged, and he was lost sight 
of as a public man for some years. In 1846, when Wilmot intro- 
duced his celebrated proviso, and the Abolition tornado swept over 
the country, Lincoln again turned up as a member of Congi-ess from 
the Sangamon district. I was then in the Senate of the United 
States, and was glad to welcome my old friend and companion. 
Whilst in Congress, he distinguished himself by his opposition to the 
Mexican war, taking the side of the common enemy against his own 
country ; and when he returned home he found that the indignation 
of the people followed him everywhere, and he was again submerged 
or obliged to retire into private life, forgotten by his former friends. 
He came up again in 1854, just in time to make this Abolition or 
Black Republican platform, in company with Giddings, Love joy, 
Chase, and Fred Douglass, for the Republican party to stand upon. 
Trumtjull, too, was one of our own contemporaries. He was born 
and raised in old Connecticut, was bred a Federalist, but remov- 
ing to Georgia, turned Nullifier when uulUfication was popular, and 



282 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

as soon as he disposed of his clocks and wound up his business, 
migrated to Illinois, turned politician and lawyer here, and made 
his appearance in 1841 as a member of the legislature. He became 
noted as the author of the scheme to repudiate a large portion of 
the State debt of Illinois, which, if successful, would have brought 
infamy and disgrace upon the fair escutcheon of our glorious State. 
The odium attached to that measure consigned him to oblivion for 
a time. 1 helped to do it. I walked into a public meeting in the 
hall of the House of Representatives, and replied to his repudiating 
speeches, and resolutions were carried over his head denouncing 
repudiation, and asserting the moral and legal obligation of Illinois 
to pay every dollar of the debt she owed and every bond that bore 
her seal. Trumbull's malignity has followed me since I thus defeated 
his infamous scheme. 

These two men having formed this combination to Abolitionize 
the Old Whig party and the old Democratic party, and put them- 
selves into the Senate of the United States, in pursuance of their 
bargain, are now carrying out that arrangement. Matheuy states 
that Trumbull broke faith ; that the bargain was that Lincoln should 
be the senator in Shields's place, and Trumbull was to wait for mine ; 
and the story goes that Trumbull cheated Lincoln, having control 
of four or five Abolitionized Democrats who were holding over in 
the Senate ; he would not let them vote for Lincoln, wbicTi obliged 
the rest of the Abolitionists to support him in order to secure an 
Abolition senator. There are a number of authorities for the truth 
of this besides Matheny, and I suppose that even Mr. Lincoln will 
not deny it. 

Mr. Lincoln demands that he shall have the place intended for 
Trumbull, as Trumbull cheated him and got his, and Trumbull is 
stumping the State traducing me for the purpose of securing the 
position for Lincoln, in order to quiet him. It was in consequence 
of this arrangement that the Republican convention was impan- 
eled to instruct for Lincoln and noljody else, and it was on this ac- 
count that they passed resolutions that he was their first, their last, 
and their only choice. Archy Williams was nowliere, Browning 
was nobody, Went worth was not to be considered; they had no 
man in the Republican party for the place except Lincoln, for the 
reason that he demanded that they should carry out the arrangement. 

Having formed this new party for the benefit of deserters from 
Whiggery and deserters from Democracy, and having laid down 
the Abolition platform Avhich I have read, Lincoln now takes his 
stand and proclaims his Abolition doctrines. Let me read a part of 
them. In his speech at Springfield to the convention which nomi- 
nated him for the Senate, he said : 

In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached 
and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this 
government cannot endure pex'manently half slave and lialf free. I do 
not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — 
but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or 
all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread 
of it, and place it where the pubhc mind shall rest in the belief that it is in 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 283 

tlie course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward till 
it shall become alike lawful in all the States — old as weU as new, North as 
well as South. [" Good," " good," and cheers.] 

I am delighted to hear you Black Republicans say " good." I 
have no doubt that doctrine expresses your sentiments, and I will 
prove to you now, if you will listen to me, that it is revolutionary 
and destructive of the existence of this government. Mr. Lincoln, 
in the extract from which I have read, says that this government 
cannot endure permanently in the same condition in which it was 
made by its framers — divided into free and slave States. He says 
that it has existed for about seventy years thus divided, and yet he 
tells you that it cannot endure permanently on the same principles 
and in the same relative condition in which our fathers made it. 
Why can it not exist divided into free and slave States ? Washing- 
ton, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Hamilton, Jay, and the great men 
of that day made this government divided into free States and slave 
States, and left each State perfectly free to do as it pleased on the 
subject of slavery. Why can it not exist on the same principles on 
which our fathers made it ? They knew when they framed the Con- 
stitution that in a country as wide and broad as this, with such a 
variety of climate, production, and interest, the people necessarily 
required different laws and institutions in different localities. They 
knew that the laws and regulations which would suit the granite 
hills of New Hampshire would be unsuited to the rice-plantations of 
South Carolina, and they therefore provided that each State should 
retain its own legislature and its own sovereignty, with the full and 
(complete power to do as it pleased within its own limits, in all that 
was local and not national. One of the reserved rights of the States 
was the right to regulate the relations between master and ser- 
vant, on the slavery question. At the time the Constitution was 
framed, there were thirteen States in the Union, twelve of which 
»^ere slaveholding States and one a free State. Suppose this doctrine 
of uniformity preached by Mr. Lincoln, that the States should all 
be free or all be slave, had prevailed, and what would have been the re- 
sult ? Of course, the twelve slaveholding States would have over- 
ruled the one free State, and slavery would have been fastened by a 
constitutional provision on every inch of the American republic, in- 
stead of being left, as our fathers wisely left it, to each State to de- 
cide for itself. Here I assert that uniformity in the local laws and 
institutions of the different States is neither possible nor desir- 
able. If uniformity had been adopted when the government was 
established, it must inevitably have been the uniformity of slavery 
everywhere, or else the uniformity of negro citizenship and negro 
equality everywhere. 

We are told by Lincoln that he is utterly opposed to the Dred 
Scott decision, and will not submit to it, for the reason that he says 
it deprives the negro of the rights and privileges of citizenship. 
That is the first and main reason which he assigns for his warfare 
on the Supreme Court of the United States and its decision. I ask 
you, are you in favor of conferring upon the negro the rights and 



284 ADDBESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

privileges of citizenship? Do you desire to strike out of our State 
constitution that clause which keeps slaves and free negroes out of 
the State, and allow the free negi-oes to flow in, and cover your 
prairies with black settlements ? Do you desire to turn this beauti- 
ful State into a free negro colony, in order that when Missouri 
abolishes slavery she can send one hundred thousand emancipated 
slaves into Illinois, to become citizens and voters, on an equality with 
yourselves? If you desire negro citizenship, if you desire to allow 
them to come into the State and settle with the white man, if you 
desire them to vote on an equality with yourselves, and to make 
them eligil)le to office, to serve on juries, and to adjudge your rights, 
then support Mr. Lincoln and the Black Republican party, who are 
in favor of the citizenship of the negro. For one, I am opposed to 
negro citizensliip in any and every form. I believe this government 
was made on the white basis. I believe it was made by white men, 
for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and I am 
in favor of confining citizenship to white men, men of European 
birth and descent, instead of conferring it upon negroes, Indians, 
and other inferior races. 

Mr. Lincoln, following the example and lead of all the little Abo- 
lition orators who go around and lecture in the basements of schools 
and churches, reads from the Declaration of Independence that all 
men were created equal, and then asks how can you deprive a negro 
of that equality which God and the Declaration of Independence 
award to him ? He and they maintain that negro equality is guar- 
anteed by the laws of God, and that it is asserted in the Declaration 
of Independence. If they think so, of course they have a right to say 
so, and so vote. I do not question Mr. Lincoln's conscientious belief 
that the negro was made his equal, and hence is his brother ; but for 
my own part, I do not regard the negro as my equal, and positively 
deny that he is my brother or any kin to me whatever. Lincoln has 
evidently learned by heart Parson Lovejoy's catechism. He can re- 
peat it as well as Farnsworth, and he is worthy of a medal from Father 
Giddings and Fred Douglass for his Abolitionism. He holds that the 
negro was born his equal and yours, and that he was endowed with 
equality by the Almighty, and that no human law can deprive him of 
these rights which were guaranteed to him by the Supreme Ruler of 
the universe. Now, I do not believe that the Almighty ever intended 
the negro to be the equal of the white man. If he did, he has been a 
long time demonstrating the fact. For thousands of years the negro 
has been a race upon the earth, and during all that time, in all lati- 
tudes and climates, wherever he has wandered or been taken, he has 
been inferior to the race which he has there met. He belongs to an 
inferior race, and must always occupy an inferior position. I do not 
hold that because the negro is our inferior therefore he ought to 
be a slave. By no means can such a conclusion be drawn from 
what I have said. On the contrary, I hold that humanity and Chris- 
tianity both require that the negro shall have and enjoy every right, 
every privilege, and every immunity consistent with the safety of the 
society in which he lives. On that point, I presume, there can be no 
diversity of opinion. You and I are bound to extend to our inferior 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 285 

and dependent beings every right, every privilege, every facility and 
immunity consistent with the public good. The question then arises, 
what rights and privileges are consistent with the public good? This 
is a question which each State and each Territory must decide for 
itself — Illinois has decided it for herself. We have provided that 
the negro shall not be a slave, and we have also provided that he 
shall not be a citizen, but protect him in his civil rights, in his life, 
his person and his property, only depriving him of all political rights 
whatsoever, and refusing to put him on an equality with the white 
man. That policy of Illinois is satisfactory to the Democratic party 
and to me, and if it were to the Republicans, there would then be no 
question upon the subject ; but the Republicans say that he ought to 
be made a citizen, and when he becomes a citizen he becomes your 
equal, with all your rights and privileges. They assert the Dred 
Scott decision to be monstrous because it denies that the negro is or 
can be a citizen under the Constitution. 

Now, I hold that Illinois had a right to abolish and prohibit sla- 
very as she did, and I hold that Kentucky has the same right to con- 
tinue and protect slavery that Illinois had to abolish it. I hold that 
New York had as much right to abolish slavery as Virginia has to 
continue it, and that each and every State of this Union is a sover- 
eign power, with the right to do as it pleases upon this question of 
slavery, and upon aU its domestic institutions. Slavery is not the 
only question which comes up in this controversy. There is a far 
more important one to you, and that is, what shall be done with the 
free negro ? We have settled the slavery question as far as we are 
concerned ; we have prohibited it in Illinois forever, and in doing 
so, I think we have done wisely, and there is no man in the State 
who would be more strenuous in his opposition to the introduction 
of slavery than I would ; but when we settled it for ourselves, we 
exhausted all our power over that subject. We have done our whole 
duty, and can do no more. We must leave each and every other 
State to decide for itself the same question. In relation to the policy 
to be pursued toward the free negroes, we have said that they shall 
not vote ; whilst Maine, on the other hand, has said that they shall 
vote. Maine is a sovereign State, and has the power to regulate 
the qualifications of voters within her limits. I would never consent 
to confer the right of voting and of citizenship upon a negro, but 
still I am not going to quarrel with Maine for differing from me in 
opinion. Let Maine take care of her own negroes, and fix the quali- 
fications of her own voters to suit herself, without interfering with 
Illinois, and Illinois will not interfere with Maine. So with the 
State of New York. She allows the negTO to vote provided he owns 
two hundred and fifty dollars' worth of property, but not otherwise. 
While I would not make any distinction whatever between a negro 
who held property and one who did not, yet if the sovereign State 
of New York chooses to make that distinction it is her business and 
not mine, and I will not quarrel with her for it. She can do as she 
pleases on this question if she minds her own business, and we will 
do the same thing. Now, my friends, if we will only act conscien- 
tiously and rigidly upon this great principle of popular sovereignty, 



286 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

which guai*antees to each State and Territory the right to do as it 
pleases on all things, local and domestic, instead of Congress inter- 
fering, we will continue at peace one with another. Why should 
Illinois be at war with Missouri, or Kentucky with Ohio, or Virginia 
with New York, merely because their iustitutions differ? Our 
fathers intended that our institutions should differ. They knew 
that the North and the South, having different climates, productions, 
and interests, required different institutions. This doctrine of Mr. 
Lincoln, of uniformity among the institutions of the different States, 
is a new doctrine, never dreamed of by Washington, Madison, or 
the framers of this government. Mr. Lincoln and the Republican 
party set themselves up as wiser than these men who made this gov- 
ernment, which has flourished for seventy years under the principle 
of popiilar sovereignty, recognizing the right of each State to do as 
it pleased. Under that principle, Ave have grown from a nation of 
three or four millions to a nation of about thirty millions of people ; 
we have crossed the Allegheny mountains and filled up the whole 
Northwest, turning the prairie into a garden, and building up churches 
and schools, thus spreading civilization and Christianity where be- 
fore there was nothing but savage barbarism. Under that principle 
we have become, from a feeble nation, the most powerful on the face of 
the earth, and if we only adhere to that priuciple, we can go forward 
increasing in territory,'in power, in strength, and in glory until the 
Republic of America shall be the north star that shall guide the 
friends of freedom throughout the civilized world. And why can 
we not adhere to the great principle of self-government upon which 
our institutions were originally based? I believe that this new doc- 
trine preached by Mr. Lincoln and his party will dissolve the Union 
if it succeeds. They are trying to array all the Northern States in 
one body against the South, to excite a sectional war between the free 
States and the slave States, in order that the one or the other may 
be driven to the wall. 

1 am told that my time is out. Mr. Lincoln will now address you 
for an hour and a half, and I will then occupy a half hour in reply- 
ing to him. 

Mr. TAncoIn^s Reply in the Ottaini Joint Debatf. 

My Fellow-citizens: When a man hears himself somewhat mis- 
represented, it provokes him — at least, I find it so with myself ; 
but when misrepresentation becomes very gross and palpable, it is 
more apt to amuse him. The first thing I see fit to notice is the 
fact that Judge Douglas alleges, after running through the history 
of the old Democratic and the old Whig parties, that Judge Trum- 
bull and myself made an arrangement in 1854 by which I was to 
have the place of General Shields in the United States Senate, and 
Judge Trumbull was to have the place of Judge Douglas. Now all 
I have to say upon that subject is that I think no man — not even 
Judge Douglas — can prove it, because it is not true. I have no 
doubt he is *' conscientious " in saying it. As to those resolutions 
that he took such a length of time to read, as being the platform of 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 287 

the Republican party in 1854, 1 say I never had anything to do with 
them, and I think Trumbull never had. Judge Douglas cannot 
show that either of us ever did have any tiling to do with them. I 
believe this is true about those resolutions. There was a call for a 
convention to form a Republican party at Springfield, and I think 
that my friend Mr. Lovejoy, who is here upon this stand, had a 
hand in it. I think this is true, and I think if he will remember 
accurately he will be able to recollect that he tried to get me into it, 
and I would not go in. I believe it is also true that I went away 
from Springfield, when the convention was in session, to attend court 
in Tazewell County. It is true they did place my name, though 
without authority, upon the committee, and afterward wrote me to 
attend the meeting of the committee, but I refused to do so, and I 
never had anything to do with that organization. This is the plain 
truth about all that matter of the resolutions. 

Now, about this story that Judge Douglas tells of Trumbull bar- 
gaining to sell out the old Democratic party, and Lincoln agreeing 
to sell out the Old Whig party, I have the means of knowing about 
that ; Judge Douglas cannot have ; and I know there is no substance 
to it whatever. Yet I have no doubt he is " conscientious " about 
it. I know that after Mr. Lovejoy got into the legislature that 
winter, he complained of me that I had told all the Old Whigs of his 
district that the Old Whig party was good enough for them, and 
some of them voted against him because I told them so. Now, I 
have no means of totally disproving such charges as this which the 
judge makes. A man cannot prove ,a negative, but he has a right to 
claim that when a man makes an affirmative charge, he must offer 
some proof to show the truth of what he says. I certainly cannot 
introduce testimony to show the negative about things, but I have a 
right to claim that if a man says he knows a thing, then he must show 
how he knows it. I always have a right to claim this, and it is not 
satisfactory to me that he may be ^'conscientious" on the subject. 

Now, gentlemen, I hate to waste my time on such things, but in 
regard to that general Abolition tilt that Judge Douglas makes, 
when he says that I was engaged at that time in selling out and 
Abolitionizing the Old Whig party, I hope you will permit me to 
read a part of a printed speech that I made then at Peoria, which 
will show altogether a different view of the position I took in that 
contest of 1854. [Voice: "Put on your specs."] Yes, sii*, I am 
o]>liged to do so. I am no longer a young man. 

This is the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The foregoing history 
may not be precisely accurate in every particular; but I am sure it is 
sufficiently so for all the uses I shall attempt to make of it, and in it we 
have before us the chief materials enabling us to correctly judge whether 
the repeal of the Missouii Compromise is right or wrong. 

I think, and shall tiy to show, that it is wrong ; wrong in its direct effect, 
letting slavery into Kansas and Nebraska — and wrong in its prospective 
principle, allowing it to spread to every other part of the wide world where 
men can be found inclined to take it. 

This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert real zeal for the 
spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous 



288 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

injustice of slavery itself. I liate it because it deprives our republican 
example of its just influence in the world ; enables the enemies of free in- 
stitutions, with plausibility, to taunt us as hj'pocrites ; causes the real 
friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it forces 
so many really good men amongst ourselves into an open war with the 
very fundamental principles of civil hberty — criticizing the Declaration 
of independence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action 
but self-interest. 

Before proceeding, let me say I think I have no prejudice against the 
Southern people. They are just what we would be in their situation. If 
slavery did not now exist among them, they would not introduce it. If it 
did now exist among us, we shoidd not instantly give it up. This I believe 
of the masses North and South. Doubtless there are individuals on both 
sides who would not hold slaves under any circumstances ; aud others who 
would gladly introduce slavery anew, if it were out of existence. We know 
that some Southern men do free theii* slaves, go North, and become tip-top 
Abolitionists ; while some Northern ones go South, and become most cruel 
slave-masters. 

When Southern people teU us they are no more responsible for the origin 
of slavery than we, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said that the insti- 
tution exists, and that it is very difficidt to get rid of it in any satisfactory 
way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I surely will not blame 
them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself. If all 
earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do as to the 
existing institution. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and 
send them to Liberia — to their own native land. But a moment's reflection 
would convince me that whatever of high hope (as I think there is) there 
may be in tliis in the long run, its sudden execution is impossible. If they 
were all landed there in a day, they would all perish in the next ten days ; 
and there are not siu'plus shipping and surplus money enough in the world 
to cany them there in many times ten days. Wliat then ? Free them all, 
and keep them among us as underlings ? Is it quite certain that tliis betters 
then* conditiou 1 I think I woidd not hold one in slavery at any rate ; yet 
the point is not clear enough to me to denoimce people upon. What next 1 
Free them, and make them politically aud socially our equals ? My own 
feelings will not admit of this ; and if mine would, we well know that those 
of the gi'eat mass of white people will not. Whether this feehng accords 
with justice and sound judgment is not the sole question, if, indeed, it is any 
part of it. A universal feeling, whether well or ill-founded, cannot be safely 
disregarded. We cannot make them equals. It does seem to me that 
systems of gradual emancipation might be adopted ; but for their tardiness 
in this, I will not undertake to judge our brethren of the South. 

When they remind us of their constitutional rights, I acknowledge them, 
not grudgingly, but fully and fairly ; and I would give them any legislation 
for the reclaiming of tlieir fugitives, which should not, in its stringency, be 
more likely to carry a free man into slavery, than our ordinary criminal 
laws are to hang an innocent one. 

But all this, to my judgment, furnishes no more excuse for permitting 
slavery to go into our own free territory, than it would for reviving the 
African slave-trade by law. The law which forbids the bringing of slaves 
from Afi'ica, and that which has so long forbidden the taking of them to Ne- 
braska, can hardly be distinguished on any moral principle ; and the repeal 
of the former could find quite as plausible excuses as that of the latter. • 

I have reason to know that Judge Douglas knows that I said this. 
I think he has the answer here to one of the questions he put to me. 
I do not mean to allow him to catechize me unless he pays back for 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 289 

it in kind. I will not answer questions one after another, unless he 
reciprocates ; but as he has made this inquiry, and I have answered 
it before, he has got it without my getting anything in return. He 
has got my answer on the fugitive-slave law. 

Now, gentlemen, I don't want to read at any great length, but this 
is the true complexion of all I have ever said in regard to the insti- 
tution of slavery and the black race. This is the whole of it, and 
anything that argues me into his idea of perfect social and political 
equality with the negro is but a specious and fantastic arrangement 
of words, by which a man can prove a horse-chestnut to be a chest- 
nut horse. I will say here, while upon this subject, that I have no 
purpose, either directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution 
of Slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful 
right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. I have no pur- 
pose to introduce political and social equality between the white and 
the black races. There is a physical difference between the two, 
which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their liv- 
ing together upon the footing of perfect equality; and inasmuch 
as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, I, as well 
as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having 
the superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary, 
but I hold that, not^vithstanding all this, there is no reason in the 
world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumer- 
ated in the Declaration of Independence — the right to life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to 
these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not 
my equal in many respects — certainly not in color, perhaps not in 
moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, 
without the leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he 
is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every 
living man. 

Now I pass on to consider one or two more of these little follies. 
The judge is woefully at fault about his early friend Lincoln being 
a " grocery-keeper." I don't know that it would be a great sin if 
I had been; but he is mistaken. Lincoln never kept a grocery 
anywhere in the world. It is true that Lincoln did work the latter 
part of one winter in a little still-house up at the head of a 
hollow. And so I think my friend, the judge, is equally at fault 
when he charges me at the time when I was in Congress of having 
opposed our soldiers who were fighting in the Mexican War. The 
judge did not make his charge very distinctly, but I tell you what 
he can prove, by referring to the record. You remember I was an 
Old Whig, and whenever the Democratic party tried to get me to vote 
that the war had been righteously begun by the President, I would 
not do it. But whenever they asked for' any money, or land-war- 
rants, or anything to pay the soldiers there, during all that time, I 
gave the same vote that Judge Douglas did. You can think as you 
please as to whether that was consistent. Such is the truth ; and 
the judge has the right to make all he can out of it. But when he, 
by a general charge, conveys the idea that I withheld supplies from 
the soldiers who were fighting in the Mexican War, or did anything 
Vol. I.— 19. 



290 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

else to hinder the soldiers, he is, to say the least, grossly and alto- 
gether mistaken, as a consultation of the records will prove to him. 

As I have not used up so much of ray time as I had supposed, I 
will dwell a little longer upon one or two of these minor topics upon 
which the judge has spoken. He has read from my speech in 
Springfield in which I say that " a house divided against itself can- 
not stand." Does the judge say it can stand 1 I don't know whether 
he does or not. The judge does not seem to be attending to me just 
now, but I would like to know if it is his opinion that a house 
divided against itself can stand. If he does, then there is a question 
of veracity, not between him and me, but between the judge and 
an authority of a somewhat higher character. 

Now, my* friends, I ask your attention to this matter for the pur- 
pose of saying something seriously. I know that the judge may 
readily enough agree with me that the maxim which was put forth 
by the Saviour is true, but he may allege that I misapply it ; and the 
judge has a right to urge that in my application I do misapply it, 
and then I have a right to show that I do not misapply it. When 
he undertakes to say that because I think this nation, so far as the 
question of slavery is concerned, will all become one thing or all 
the other, I am in favor of bringing about a dead uniformity in the 
various States in all their institutions, he argues erroneously. The 
great variety of the local institutions in the States, springing from 
differences in the soil, differences in the face of the country, and in 
the climate, are bonds of union. They do not make " a house di- 
vided against itself," but they make a house united. If they pro- 
duce in one section of the country what is called for by the wants 
of another section, and this other section can supply the wants of 
the first, they are not matters of discord but bonds of union, true 
bonds of union. But can this question of slavery be considered as 
among these varieties in the institutions of the country ? I leave it 
to you to say whether, in the history of our government, this insti- 
tution of slavery has not always failed to be a bond of union, and, 
on the contrary, been an apple of discord and an element of divi- 
sion in the house. I ask you to consider whether, so long as the 
moral constitution of men's minds shall continue to be the same, 
after this generation and assemblage shall sink into the grave, and 
another race shall arise with the same moral and intellectual devel- 
opment we have — whether, if that institution is standing in the 
same irritating position in which it now is, it will not continue an 
element of division ? 

If so, then I have a right to say that, in regard to this question, the 
Union is a house divided against itself ; and when the judge reminds 
me that I have often said to him that the institution of slavery has 
existed for eighty years in some States, and yet it does not exist in 
some others, I agree to the fact, and I account for it by looking at the 
position in which our fathers originally placed it — restricting it from 
the new Territories where it had not gone, and legislating to cut off 
its source by the abrogation of the slave-trade, thus putting the seal 
of legislaticm against its spread. The public mind did rest in the 
belief that it was in the course of ultimate extinction. But lately, I 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHA^I LINCOLN 291 

think — and in this I charge nothing on the judge's motives — lately, 
I think, that he, and those acting with him, have placed that institu- 
tion on a new basis, which looks to the perpetuity and nationalization 
of slavery. And while it is placed upon this new basis, I say, and I 
have said, that I believe we shall not have peace upon the question 
until the opponents of slavery arrest the further spread of it, and 
place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the 
course of ultimate extinction; or, on the other hand, that its advo- 
cates will push it forward until it shall become alike lawful in all the 
States, old as well as new, North as well as South. Now I believe if 
we could arrest the spread, and place it where Washington and 
Jefferson and Madison placed it, it would be in the course of ultimate 
extinction, and the public mind would, as for eighty years past, be- 
lieve that it was in the course of ultimate extinction. The crisis 
would be past, and the institution might be let alone for a hundred 
years — if it should live so long — in the States where it exists, yet it 
would be going out of existence in the way best for both the black 
and the white races. [A voice: "Then do you repudiate popular 
sovereignty?"] Well, then, let us talk about popular sovereignty^ 
What is popular sovereignty ? Is it the right of the people to have 
slavery or not have it, as they see fit, in the Territories? I will 
state — and I have an able man to watch me — my understanding is 
that popular sovereignty, as now applied to the question of slavery, 
does allow the people of a Territory to have slaver}- if they w^ant to, 
but does not allow them not to have it if they do not want it. I do 
not mean that if this vast concourse of people were in a Territory of 
the United States, any one of them would be obliged to have a slave 
if he did not want one ; but I do say that, as I understand the Dred 
Scott decision, if any one man wants slaves, all the rest have no way 
of keeping that one man from holding them. 

When I made my speech at Springfield, of which the judge com- 
plains, and from which he quotes, I really was not thinldng of the 
things which he ascribes to me at all. I had no thought in the world 
that I was doing anything to bring about a war between the fi-ee 
and slave States. I had no thought in the world that I was doing 
anything to bring about a political and social equality of the black 
and white races. It never occurred to me that I was doing anything 
or favoring anything to reduce to a dead uniformitv all the local 
institutions of the various States. But I must say, in all fairness 
to him, if he thinks I am doing something which leads to these bad 
results, it is none the better that I did not mean it. It is just as 
fatal to the country, if I have any influence in producing it, whether 
I intend it or not. But can it be true, that placing this institution 
upon the original basis — the basis upon which oui- fathers placed 
it — can have any tendency to set the Northern and the Southern 
States at war with one another, or that it can have any tendency to 
make the people of Vermont raise sugar-cane because they raise it 
in Louisiana, or that it can compel the people of Illinois to cut pine 
logs on the Grand Prairie, where they wiU not grow, l)ecause they 
cut pine logs in Maine, where they do grow? The judge says this 
is a new principle started in regard to this question. Does the judge 



292 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

claim that he is working on the plan of the founders of the gov- 
ernment ? I think he says in some of his speeches — indeed, I have 
one here now — that he saw evidence of a policy to allow slavery to 
be south of a certain line, while north of it it should be excluded, and 
he saw an indisposition on the part of the country to stand upon that 
pohcy, and therefore he set about studying the subject upon original 
principles, and upon original principles he ^ot up the Nebraska 
bill ! I am fighting it upon these " original principles " — fighting it 
in the Jeffersonian, Washingtonian, and Madisonian fashion. 

Now, my friends, I wish you to attend for a little while to one or 
two other things in that Springfield speech. My main object was 
to show, so far as my humble ability was capable of showing to the 
people of this country, what I believed was the truth — that there 
was a tendency, if not a conspiracy, among those who have engi- 
neered this slavery question for the last four or five years, to make 
slavery perpetual and universal in this nation. Having made that 
speech principally for that object, after arranging the e\T.dences 
that I thought tended to prove my proposition, I concluded with 
this bit of comment : 

We cannot absolutely know that these exact adaptations are the result 
of pre-concert, but when we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions 
of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places, and 
by different workmen — Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James, for Lastance ; 
and when we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly 
make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortices exactly fit- 
ting, and all the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly 
adapted to then' respective places, and not a piece too many or too few, — 
not omitting even the scaffolding, — or if a single piece be lacking, we see 
the place in tlie frame exactly fitted and prepared to yet bring such piece 
in — in such a ease we feel it impossible not to beUeve that Stephen and 
Franklin, and Roger and James, all understood one another from the be- 
ginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn before the 
fii'st blow was struck. 

When my friend, Judge Douglas, came to Chicago on the 9th of 
July, this speech having been delivered on the 16th of June, he 
made an harangue there in which he took hold of this speech of 
mine, showing that he had carefully read it ; and while he paid no 
attention to this matter at all, but complimented me as being a 
"kind, amiable, and intelligent gentleman," notwithstanding I had 
said this, he goes on and deduces, or draws out, from my speech 
this tendency of mine to set the States at war with one another, to 
make all the institutions uniform, and set the niggers and white 
people to marry together. Then, as the judge had complimented 
me with those pleasant titles (I must confess to my weakness), I 
was a little " taken,'' for it came from a great man. I was not very 
much accustomed to flattery, and it came the sweeter to me. I was 
rather like the Hoosier with the gingerbread, when he said he reck- 
oned he loved it better than any other man, and got less of it. As 
the judge had so flattered me, I could not make up my mind that 
he meant to deal unfairly with me ; so I went to work to show him 
that he misunderstood the whole scope of my speech, and that I 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 293 

really never intended to set the people at war with one another. As 
an illustration, the next time I met him, which was at Springfield, I 
used this expression, that I claimed no riglit under the Constitution, 
nor had I any inclination, to enter into the slave States and inter- 
fere with the institutions of slavery. He says upon that : Lin- 
coln will not enter into the slave States, but will go to the banks of 
the Ohio, on this side, and shoot over ! He runs on, step by step, in 
the horse-chestnut style of argument, until in the Springfield speech 
he says, " Unless he shall be successful in firing his batteries, until 
he shall have extinguished slavery in all the States, the Union shall 
be dissolved." Now I don't think that was exactly the way to treat 
" a kind, amiable, intelligent gentleman." I know if I had asked 
the judge to show when or where it was I had said, that if I did n't 
succeed in firing into the slave States until slavery should be extin- 
guished, the Union should be dissolved, he could not have shown it. 
I understand what he would do. He would say, ''I don't mean to 
quote from you, but this was the result of what you say." But I 
have the right to ask, and I do ask now, did you not put it in such 
a form that an ordinary reader or listener would take it as an ex- 
pression from me ? 

In a speech at Springfield on the night of the 17th, I thought I 
might as well attend to my business a little, and I recalled his atten- 
tion as well as I could to this charge of conspiracy to nationalize 
slavery. I called his attention to the fact that he had acknowledged in 
my hearing twice that he had carefully read the speech ; and, in the 
language of the lawyers, as he had twice read the speech, and still had 
put in no plea or answer, I took a default on him. I insisted that I 
had a right then to renew that charge of conspiracy. Ten days after- 
ward I met the judge at Clinton — that is to say, I was on theground, 
but not in the discussion — and heard him make a speech. Then he 
comes in with his plea to this charge, for the first time, and his plea 
when put in, as well as I can recollect it, amounted to this : that he 
never had any talk with Judge Taney or the President of the United 
States with regard to the Dred Scott decision before it was made. 
I (Lincoln) ought to know that the man who makes a charge without 
knowing it to be true, falsifies as much as he who knowingly tells a 
falsehood; and lastly, that he would pronounce the whole "thing a 
falsehood ; but he would make no personal application of the charge 
of falsehood, not because of any regard for the " kind, amiable, intel- 
ligent gentleman," but because of his own personal self-respect ! I 
have understood since then (but [turning to Judge Douglas] will not 
hold the judge to it if he is not willing) that he has broken through 
the " self-respect," and has got to saying the thing out. The judge 
nods to me that it is so. It is fortunate for me that I can keep as 
good-humored as I do, when the judge acknowledges that he has 
been trying to make a question of veracity with me. I know the 
judge is a great man, while I am only a small man, but I feel that I 
have got him. I demur to that plea. I waive all objections that it 
was not filed till after default was taken, and demur to it upon the 
merits. What if Judge Douglas never did talk with Chief Justice 
Taney and the President before the Dred Scott decision was made ; 



294 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

does it follow that be could not have had as perfect an understand- 
ing without talking as with it? I am not disposed to stand upon 
my legal advantage. I am disposed to take his denial as being like 
an answer in chancery, that he neither had any knowledge, informa- 
tion, nor belief in the existence of such a conspiracy. I am disposed 
to take his answer as being as broad as though he had put it in 
these words. And now, I ask, even if he had done so, have not I 
a right to prove it on him, and to offer the evidence of more than 
two witnesses, by whom to prove it; and if the evidence proves 
the existence of the conspiracy, does his broad answer, denying 
all knowledge, infomiation, or belief, disturb the fact? It can 
OTdy show that he was used by conspirators, and was not a leader 
of them. 

Now, in regard to his reminding me of the moral rule that per- 
sons who tell what they do not know to be true, falsify as much as 
those who knowingly tell falsehoods. I remember the rule, and it 
must be borne in mind that in what I have read to you, I do not say 
that I know such a conspiracy to exist. To that I reply, I believe it. 
If the judge says that I do not believe it, then he says what he does 
not know, and falls within his own rule that he who asserts a thing 
which he does not know to be true, falsifies as much as he who 
knowingly tells a falsehood. I want to call your attention to a little 
discussion on that branch of the case, and the evidence which brought 
my mind to the conclusion which I expressed as my belief. If, in 
arraying that evidence, I had stated anything which was false or er- 
roneous, it needed but that Judge Douglas should point it out, and 
I would have taken it back with all the kindness in the world. I do 
not deal in that way. If I have brought forward anything not a fact, 
if he will point it out, it will not even ruffle me to take it back. But 
if he will not point out anything erroneous in the evidence, is it not 
rather for him to show by a comparison of the evidence that I have 
reasoned falsely, than to call the " kind, amiable, intelligent gentle- 
man " a liar ? If I have reasoned to a false conclusion, it is the vo- 
cation of an able debater to show by argument that I have wan- 
dered to an erroneous conclusion. I want to ask yonr attention to 
a portion of the Nebraska bill which Judge Douglas has quoted : 
'' It being the true intent and meaning of this act, not to legislate 
slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to 
leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their do- 
mestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution 
of the United States." Thereupon Judge Douglas and others began 
to argue in favor of "popular sovereignty" — the right of the people 
to have slaves if they wanted them, and to exclude slavery if they 
did not want them. '^ But," said, in substance, a senator from Ohio 
(Mr. Chase, I believe), " we more than suspect that you do not mean 
to allow the people to exclude slavery if they wish to ; and if j'ou do 
mean it, accept an amendment which I propose expressly authorizing 
the people to exclude slaverv." I believe I have the amendment 
here before me, which was offered, and under which the people of 
the Territory, through their proper representatives, might, if they 
saw fit, prohibit the existence of slavery therein. And now I state 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 295 

it as a fact, to be taken back if there is any mistake about it, that 
Judge Douglas and those acting with him voted that amendment 
down. I now think that those men who voted it down had a real 
reason for doing so. They know what that reason was. It looks to 
us, since we have seen the Dred Scott decision pronounced, holding 
that, " under the Constitution," the people cannot exclude slaver}^ — 
I say it looks to outsiders, poor, simple, '' amiable, intelligent gen- 
tlemen," as though the niche was left as a place to put that Dred 
Scott decision in, a niche which would have been spoiled by adopting 
the amendment. And now I say again, if this was not the reason, 
it will avaO. the judge much more to calmly and good-hum oredly 
point out to these people what that other reason was for voting the 
amendment down, than swelling himself up to vociferate that he 
may be provoked to call somebody a liar. 

Again : there is in that same quotation from the Nebraska bill 
this clause : " It being the true intent and meaning of this bill not 
to legislate slavery into any Territory or State." I have always 
been puzzled to know what business the word '' State " had in that 
connection. Judge Douglas knows. He put it there. He knows 
what he put it there for. We outsiders cannot say what he put it 
there for. The law they were passing was not about States, and 
was not making provision for States. What was it placed there 
for? After seeing the Dred Scott decision which holds that the 
people cannot exclude slavery from a Territory, if another Dred 
Scott decision shall come, holding that they cannot exclude it from 
a State, we shaU discover that when the word was originally put 
there, it was in view of something which was to come in due time, 
we shall see that it was the other half of something. I now say 
again, if there is any different reason for putting it there, Judge 
Douglas, in a good-humored way, without calling anybody a liar, 
can tell what the reason was. 

When the judge spoke at Clinton, he came very near making a 
charge of falsehood against me. He used, as I found it printed in 
a newspaper, which, I remember was very nearly like the real speech, 
the following language : 

I did not answer the charge [of conspiracy] before for the reason that I 
did not suppose there was a man in America with a heart so corrupt as to 
believe such a charge could be true. I have too much respect for Mr. 
Lincoln to suppose he is serious in making the charge. 

I confess this is rather a curious view, that out of respect for me 
he should consider I was making what I deemed rather a grave charge 
in fun. I confess it strikes me rather strangely. But I let it pass. 
As the judge did not for a moment believe that there was a man in 
America whose heart was so " corrupt " as to make such a charge, 
and as he places me among the " men in America " who have hearts 
base enough to make such a charge, I hope he will excuse me if I 
hunt out another charge very like this ; and if it should turn out 
that in hunting I should find that other, and it should turn out 
to be Judge Douglas himself who made it, I hope he will reconsider 
this question of the deep corruption of heart he has thought fit to 



296 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ascribe to me. In Judge Douglas's speech of March 22, 1858, which 
I hold in my hand, he says : 

In this connection there is another topic to which I desire to allude. I 
seldom refer to the coui'se of newspapers, or notice the articles which they 
publish in regard to myself; but the course of the Washington "Union" 
has been so extraordinary, for the last two or three months, that I think it 
weU enough to make some allusion to it. It has read me out of the Dem- 
ocratic party every other day, at least for two or three months, and keeps 
reading me out, and, as if it had not succeeded, still continues to read me 
out, using such terms as ''traitor," " renegade," ''deserter," and other kind 
and polite epithets of that nature. Sir, I have no vindication to make of 
my Democracy against the Washington " Union," or any other newspaper, 
I am willing to allow my history and actions for the last twenty years to 
speak for themselves as to my political principles, and my fidehty to political 
obligations. The Washington " Union " has a personal gi'ievance. When 
the editor was nominated for pubhc printer I declined to vote for him, and 
stated that at some time I might give my reasons for doing so. Since I 
declined to give that vote, this scuitIIous abuse, these vindictive and con- 
stant attacks, have been repeated almost daily on me. Will my friend from 
Michigan read the article to which I allude ? 

This is a part of the speech. You must excuse me from reading 
the entire article of the Washington " Union," as Mr. Stuart read it 
for Mr. Douglas. The judge goes on and sums up, as I think, 
correctly : 

Mr. President, you here find several distinct propositions advanced boldly 
by the Washington " Union "ethtorially, and apparently authoritatively, and 
any man who questions any of them is denounced as an Abohtionist, a Free- 
soiler, a fanatic. The propositions are, first, that the primary object of all 
government at its oi'iginal institution is the protection of person and prop- 
erty ; second, that the Constitution of the United States declares that the 
citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities 
of citizens in the several States ; and that^ therefore, thirdly, all State laws, 
whether organic or otherwise, which prohibit the citizens of one State from 
setthng in another with their slave property, and especially declaring it 
forfeited, are direct violations of the original intention of the government 
and Constitution of the United States ; and, fourth, that the emancipation of 
the slaves of the Northern States was a gross outrage on the rights of prop- 
erty, inasmuch as it was involuntarily done on the part of the owner. 

Remember that this article was pubhshed in the " Union " on the 17th of 
November, and on the 18th appeared the first article giving the adliesion 
of the " Union " to the Lecompton constitution. It was in these words : 

" Kansas and her Constitution. The vexed question is settled. The 
problem is solved. The dead point of danger is passed. All serious trouble 
to Kansas affairs is over and gone." 

And a column nearly of the same sort. Then, when you come to look into 
the Lecompton constitution, you find the same doctrine incorporated in it 
which was put forth editorially in the "Union." What is it"? 

"Article 7, Section 1. The right of property is before and higher than 
any constitutional sanction ; and the right of the owner of a slave to such 
slave and its increase is the same and as inviolable as the right of the owner 
of any property whatever." 

Then in the schedule is a provision that the constitution may be amended 
after 18G4 by a two-thirds vote. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 297 

" But no alteration shall be made to affect the right of property in the 
ownership of slaves." 

It will be seen by these clauses in the Lecompton constitution that they are 
identical in spirit with the authoritative article in the Washington '' Union" 
of the day previous to its indorsement of this constitution. 

I pass over some portions of the speech, and I hope that any one 
who feels interested in this matter will read the entire section of the 
speech, and see whether I do the judge injustice. He proceeds: 

When I saw that article in the ** Union" of the 17th of November, followed 
by the glorification of the Lecompton constitution on the 18th of November, 
and this clause in the constitution asserting the doctrine that a State has no 
right to proliibit slavery within its limits, I saw that there was a fatal blow 
being struck at the sovereignty of the States of this Union. 

I stop the quotation there, again requesting that it may all be read. 
I have read all of the portion I desire to comment upon. What is 
this charge that the judge thinks I must have a very corrupt heart to 
make ? It was a purpose on the part of certain high functionaries to 
make it impossible for the people of one State to prohibit the people 
of any other State from entering it with their '' property," so called, 
and making it a slave State. In other words, it was a charge im- 
plying a design to make the institution of slavery national. And 
now I ask your attention to what Judge Douglas has himself done 
here. I know he made that part of the speech as a reason why he 
had refused to vote for a certain man for public printer, but when 
we get at it, the charge itself is the very one I made against him, 
that he thinks I am so corrupt for uttering. Now, whom does he 
make that charge against ? Does he make it against that newspaper 
editor merely"? No; he says it is identical in spirit with the Le- 
compton constitution, and so the framers of that constitution are 
brought in with the editor of the newspaper in that '^ fatal blow be- 
ing struck." He did not call it a ''conspiracy." In his language it 
is a " fatal blow being struck." And if the words carry the meaning 
better when changed from a " conspiracy " into a " fatal blow being 
struck," I will change my expression and call it "fatal blow being 
struck." We see the charge made not merely against the editor of 
the " Union," but all the framers of the Lecompton constitution ; and 
not only so, but the article was an authoritative article. By whose 
authority ? Is there any question but that he means it was by the 
authority of the President and his cabinet — the administration? 
Is there any sort of question but that he means to make that 
charge ? Then there are the editors of the " Union," the framers of the 
Lecompton constitution, the President of the United States and his 
cabinet, and all the supporters of the Lecompton constitution, in Con- 
gress and out of Congress, who are all involved in this " fatal blow 
being struck." I commend to Judge Douglas's consideration the ques- 
tion of how corrupt a man's heart must be to make such a charge ! 

Now, my friends, I have but one branch of the subject, in the lit- 
tle time I have left, to which to call your attention, and as I shall 
come to a close at the end of that branch, it is probable that I shall not 



298 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

occupy quite all tlie time allotted to me. Although on these questions 
I would like to talk twice as long as I have, I could not enter upon 
another head and discuss it properly without running over my 
time. I ask the attention of the people here assembled and else- 
wliere, to the course that Judge Douglas is pursuing every day as 
bearing upon this question of making slavery national. Not going 
back to the records, but taking the speeches he makes, the speeches 
he made yesterday and day before, and makes constantly all over 
the country — I ask your attention to them. In the fii'st place, what 
is necessary to make the institution national ? Not war. There is 
no danger that the people of Kentucky will shoulder their muskets, 
and, with a young nigger stuck on every bayonet, march into Illinois 
and force them upon us. There is no danger of oui' going over 
there and making war upon them. Then what is necessary for the 
nationalization of slavery? It is simply the next Dred Scott decision. 
It is merely for the Supreme Court to decide that no State under 
the Constitution can exclude it, just as they have already decided 
that under the Constitution neither Congress nor the territorial 
legislature can do it. Wlien that is decided and acquiesced in, the 
whole thing is done. This being true, and this being the way, as I 
think, that slavery is to be made national, let us consider what 
Judge Douglas is doing every day to that end. In the first place, 
let us see what influence he is exerting on public sentiment. In this 
and like communities, public sentiment is everything. With public 
sentiment, nothing can fail ; without it, nothing can succeed. Con- 
sequently he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who 
enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and de- 
cisions possible or impossible to be executed. This must be borne 
in mind, as also the additional fact that Judge Douglas is a man of 
vast influence, so great that it is enough for many men to profess to 
believe anything when they once find out that Judge Douglas pro- 
fesses to believe it. Consider also the attitude he occupies at the 
head of a large party — a party which he claims has a majority of 
all the voters in the country. 

This man sticks to a decision which forbids the people of a Ter- 
ritory to exclude slavery, and he does so not because he says it 
is right in itself, — he does not give an}^ opinion on that, — but 
because it has been decided by the court, and, being decided by 
the court, he is, and you are, bound to take it in your political 
action as law — not that he judges at all of its merits, but because 
a decision of the court is to him a ^' Thus saith the Lord." He 
places it on that ground alone, and you will bear in mind that 
thus committing himself unreservedly to this decision, commits 
hira to the next one just as firmly as to this. He did not commit 
himself on account of the merit or demerit of the decision, but it is a 
" Thus saith the Lord." The next decision, as much as this, will be a 
" Thus saith the Lord." There is nothing that can divert or turn him 
away from this decision. It is nothing that I point out to him that 
his great prototype. General Jackson, did not believe in the bind- 
ing force of decisions. It is nothing to him that Jefferson did not 
so believe. I have said that I have often heard him approve of 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 299 

Jackson's course iu disregarding tlie decision of the Supreme Court 
pronouncing a national bank constitutional. He says I did not 
bear him say so. He denies the accuracy of my recollection. I say 
be ought to know better than I, but I will make no question about 
tliis thing, though it still seems to me that I heard him say it twenty 
times. I will tell him though, that he now claims to stand on the 
Cincinnati platform, which affirms that Congress cannot charter a 
national bank, in the teeth of that old standing decision that Con- 
gress can charter a bank. And I remind him of another piece of 
history on the question of respect for judicial decisions, and it is a 
piece of Illinois history, belonging to a time when a large party to 
which Judge Douglas belonged were displeased with a decision of 
the Supreme Court of Illinois, because they had decided that a gov- 
ernor could not remove a secretary of state. You will find the whole 
story in Ford's ''History of Illinois," and I know that Judge Douglas 
will not deny that he was then in favorof overslaughing that decision 
by the mode of adding five new judges, so as to vote down the four 
old ones. Not only so, but it ended in the judge's sitting down on 
the very bench as one of the five new judges to break down the four 
old ones. It was in this way precisely that he got his title of judge. 
Now, when the judge tells me that men appointed conditionally to 
sit as members of a court will have to be catechised beforehand 
upon some subject, I say, " You know, judge ; you have tried it." 
When he sa^'S a court of this kind will lose the confidence of all men, 
will be prostituted and disgraced by such a proceeding, I say, " You 
know best, judge; you have been through the mill." 

But I cannot shake Judge Douglas's teeth loose from the Dred 
Scott decision. Like some obstinate animal (I mean no disrespect) 
that will hang on when he has once got his teeth fixed, — you may 
cut off a leg, or you may tear away an arm, still he wiU not relax his 
hold. And so I may p()int out to the judge, and say that he is be- 
spattered all over, from the beginning of his political life to the pres- 
ent time, with attacks upon judicial decisions, — I may cut off limb 
after limb of his public record, and strive to wrench from him a sin- 
gle dictum of the coin-t, yet I cannot divert him from it. He hangs 
to the last to the Dred Scott decision. These things show there is a 
purpose strong as death and eternity for which he adheres to this de- 
cision, and for which he will adhere to all other decisions of the same 
court. [A Hibernian: "Give us something besides Drid Scott."] 
Yes ; no doubt you want to hear something that don't hurt. Now, 
having spoken of the Dred Scott decision, one more word and I am 
done. Henry Clay, my beau ideal of a statesman, the man for whom 
I fought all my humble life — Henry Clay once said of a class of men 
who would repress all tendencies to liberty and ultimate emancipa- 
tion, that they must, if they would do this, go back to tlie era of our 
independence, and muzzle the cannon which thunders its annual joy- 
ous return ; they must blow out the moral lights around us ; they 
must penetrate the human soul, and eradicate there the love of lib- 
erty; and then, and not till then, could they perpetuate slavery in 
this country! To my thinking. Judge Douglas is, by his example 
and vast influence, doing that very thing in this community when he 



300 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

says that the negro has nothing in the Declaration of Independence, 
Henry Chiy plainly understood the contrary. Judge Douglas is going 
back to the era of our Revolution, and to the extent of his ability 
muzzling the cannon which thunders its annual joyous return. 
When he invites any people^ willing to have slavery, to establish it, 
he is blowing out the moral lights around us. When he says he " cares 
not whether slavery is voted down or voted up" — that it is a sacred 
right of self-government — he is, in my judgment, penetrating the 
human soul and eradicating the light of reason and the love of liberty 
in this American people. And now I will only say that when, by all 
these means and appliances. Judge Douglas shall succeed in bringing 
public sentiment to an exact accordance with his own views — when 
these vast assemblages shall echo back all these sentiments — when 
they shall come to repeat his views and to avow his principles, and 
to say all that he says on these mighty questions — then it needs only 
the formality of the second Dred Scott decision, which he indorses in 
advance, to make slavery alike lawful in all the States — old as weU 
as new. North as well as South, 

My friends, that ends the chapter. The judge can take his half 
hour. 

Mr. Douglases Rejoinder in the Ottawa Joint Debate. 

Fellow-citizens : I will now occupy the haK hour allotted to me in 
replying to Mr. Lincoln. The first point to which I will call your 
attention is, as to what I said about the organization of the Repub- 
lican party in 1854, and the platform that was formed on the 5th 
of October of that year, and I will then put the question to Mr, 
Lincoln, whether or not he approves of each article in that plat- 
form, and ask for a specific answer. I did not charge him with be- 
ing a member of the committee which reported that platform, I 
charged that that platform was the platform of the Republican party 
adopted by them. The fact that it was the platform of the Re- 
publican party is not denied, but Mr. Lincoln now says that although 
his name was on the committee which reported it, he does not think 
he was there, but thinks he was in Tazewell, holding court. Now, 
I want to remind Mr. Lincoln that he was at Springfield when that 
convention was held and those resolutions adopted. 

The point I am going to remind Mr. Lincoln of is this : that after 
I had made my speech in 1854, during the fair, he gave me notice 
that he was going to reply to me the next day. I was sick at the 
time, but I stayed over in Springfield to hear his reply and to reply to 
him. On that day this very convention, the resolutions adopted by 
which I have read, was to meet in the Senate chamber. He spoke 
in the hall of the House ; and when he got through his speech — my 
recollection is distinct, and I shall never forget it — Mr, Codding 
walked in as I took the stand to reply, and gave notice that the Re- 
publican State convention would meet instantly in the Senate cham- 
ber, and called upon the Republicans to retire there and go into this 
very convention, instead of remaining and listening to me. 

In the first place, Mr. Lincoln was selected by the very men who 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 301 

made the Republican organization on tliat day, to reply to me. He 
spoke for them and for that party, and he was the leader of the 
party ; and on the very day he made his speech in reply to me, 
preaching up this same doctrine of negro equality under the Decla- 
ration of Independence, this Republican party met in convention. 
Another evidence that he was acting in concert with them is to 
be found in the fact that that convention waited an hour after its 
time of meeting to hear Lincoln's speech, and Codding, one of their 
leading men, marched in the moment Lincoln got through, and gave 
notice that they did not want to hear me, and would proceed with 
the business of the convention. Still another fact. I have here a 
newspaper printed at Springfield — Mr. Lincoln's own town — in Octo- 
ber, 1854, a few days afterward, publishing these resolutions charg- 
ing Mr, Lincoln with entertaining these sentiments, and trying to 
prove that they were also the sentiments of Mr. Yates, then candi- 
date for Congress. This has been published on Mr. Lincoln over 
and over again, and never before has he denied it. 

But, my friends, this denial of his that he did not act on the com- 
mittee, is a miserable quibble to avoid the main issue, which is, that 
this Republican platform declares in favor of the unconditional re- 
peal of the fugitive-slave law. Has Lincoln answered whether he 
indorsed that or not? I called his attention to it when I first ad- 
dressed you, and asked him for an answer, and I then predicted that 
he would not answer. How does he answer ? Wliy, that he was not 
on the committee that wrote the resolutions. I then repeated the 
next proposition contained in the resolutions, which was to restrict 
slavery in those States in which it exists, and asked him whether he 
indorsed it. Does he answer yes or no ? He says in reply, '' I was 
not on the committee at the time ; I was up in Tazewell." The next 
question I put to him was, whether he was in favor of prohibiting 
the admission of any more slave States into the Union. I put the 
question to him distinctly, whether, if the people of the Territory, 
when they had sufficient population to make a State, should form 
their constitution recognizing slaver}', he would vote for or against 
its admission. He is a candidate for the United States Senate, and 
it is possible, if he should be elected, that he would have to vote 
directly on that question. I asked him to answer me and you, 
whether he would vote to admit a State into the Union, with slavery 
or without it, as its own people might choose. He did not answer 
that question. He dodges that question also, under cover that he 
was not on the committee at the time, that he was not present when 
the platform was made. I want to know, if he should happen to be 
in the Senate when a State applied for admission with a constitution 
acceptable to her own people, whether he would vote to admit that 
State if slavery was one of its institutions. He avoids the answer. 

It is true he gives the Abolitionists to understand by a hint that 
he would not vote to admit such a State. And why ? He goes on 
to say that the man who would talk about giving each State the right 
to have slavery or not, as it pleased, was akin to the man who would 
muzzle the guns which thundered forth the annual joyous return of 
the day of our independence. He says that that kind of talk is casting 



302 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

a blight on the glory of this country. What is the meaning of that ? 
That he is not in favor of each State to have the right of doing as 
it pleases on the slavery question ? I will put the question to him 
again and again, and I intend to force it out of him. 

Then again, this platform which was made at Springfield by his 
own party, when he was its acknowledged head, provides that Re- 
publicans will insist on the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia, and I asked Lincoln specifically whether he agreed with 
them in that. [" Did vou get an answer ! "] He is afraid to answer 
it. He knows I will trot him down to Egypt. I intend to make 
him answer there, or I will show the people of Illinois that he does 
not intend to answer these questions. The convention to which I 
have been alluding goes a little further, and pledges itself to exclude 
slavery from all the Territories over which the General Govern- 
ment has exclusive jurisdiction north of 36° 30', as well as south. 
Now I want to know whether he approves that provision. I want 
him to answer, and when he does, I want to know his opinion on 
another point, which is, whether he will redeem the pledge of this 
platform and resist the acquirement of any more territory unless 
slavery therein shall be forever prohibited. I want him to answer 
this last question. All of the questions I have put to him are 
practical questions — questions based upon the fundamental princi- 
ples of the Black Republican party; and I want to know whether 
he is the first, last, and only choice of a party with whom he does 
not agree in principle. He does not deny that that principle was 
unanimously adopted by the Republican party ; he does not deny 
that the whole Republican party is pledged to it ; he does not deny 
that a man who is not faithful to it is faithless to the Republican 
party; and now I want to know whether that party is unanimously 
in favor of a man who does not adopt that creed and agree with 
them in their principles : I want to know whether the man who does 
jiot agi'ce with them, and who is afraid to avow his differences, and 
who dodges the issue, is the first, last, and only choice of the Re- 
publican party. [A voice: "How about the conspiracy?"] Never 
mind, I will come to that soon enough. But the platform which I 
have read to you not only lays down these principles, but it adds : 

Besolved : That in furtherance of these principles we will use such coii- 
stitutioual and lawful means as shall seem best adapted to their accomplish- 
ment, and that we will support no man for office, under the General or State 
Government, who is not positively and fully committed to the support of 
these principles, and whose personal character and conduct are not a gnar- 
auty that he is reliable, and who shall not have abjured old party allegiance 
and ties. 

The Black Republican party stands pledged that they will never 
support Lincoln until he has pledged himself to that platform, but 
he cannot devise his answer; he has not made up his mind whether 
he will or not. He talked about everything else he could think of to 
occupy his hour and a half, and when he could not think of anything 
more to say, without an excuse for refusing to answer these ques- 
tions, he sat down long before Ms time was out. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 303 

lu relation to Mr. Lincoln's charge of conspiracy against me, I 
have a word to say. In his speech to-day he quotes a playful part 
of his speech at Springfield, about Stephen, and James, and Franklin, 
and Roger, and says that I did not take exception to it. I did not 
answer it, and he repeats it again. I did not take exception to this 
figure of his. He has a right to be as playful as he pleases in throw- 
ing his arguments together, and I will not object; but I did take 
objection to his second Springfield speech, in which he stated that he 
intended his first speech as a charge of corruption or conspiracy 
against the Supreme Court of the United States, President Pierce, 
President Buclianan, and myself. That gave the offensive character 
to the charge. He then said that when he made it he did not know 
whether it was true or not, but inasmuch as Judge Douglas had not 
denied it, although he had replied to the other parts of his speech 
three times, he repeated it as a charge of conspiracy against me, thus 
charging me with moral turpitude. When he put it in that form, I 
did say, that inasmuch as he repeated the charge simply because I 
had not denied it, I would deprive him of the opportunity of ever re- 
peating it again by declaring that it was in all its bearings an in- 
famous lie. He says he will repeat it until I answer his folly and 
nonsense about Stephen, and Franklin, and Roger, and Bob, and 
James. 

He studied that out — prepared that one sentence with the greatest 
care, committed it to memory, and put it in his first Springfield 
speech, and now he carries that speech around and reads that sen- 
tence to show how pretty it is. His vanity is wounded because I will 
not go into that beautiful figure of his about the building of a house. 
All I have to say is that I am not green enough to let him make a 
charge which he acknowledges he does not know to be true, and then 
take up my time in answering it, when I know it to be false and no- 
body else knows it to be true. 

I have not brought a charge of moral turpitude against him. 
When he, or any other man, brings one against me, instead of dis- 
proving it, I will say that it is a lie, and let him prove it if he can. 

I have lived twenty-five years in Illinois. I have served you with 
all the fidelity and ability which I possess, and Mr. Lincoln is at lib- 
erty to attack my public action, my votes, and my conduct; but when 
he dares to attack my moral integrity, by a charge of conspiracy be- 
tween myself, Chief Justice Taney and the Supreme Court, and two 
Presidents of the United States, I will repel it. 

Mr. Lincoln has not character enough for integrity and truth, 
merelj' on his own i/j.se dixit, to arraign President Buclianan, Presi- 
dent Pierce, and nine judges of the Supreme Court, not one of whom 
would be complimented by being put on an equality with him. There 
is an unpardonable presumption in a man putting himself up before 
thousands of people, and pretending that his ipse dixit, without proof, 
without fact, and without truth, is enough to bring down and destroy 
the purest and best of living men. 

Fellow-citizens, my time is fast expiring: I must pass on. Mr. 
Lincoln wants to know why I voted against Mr. Chase's amendment 
to the Nebraska bill. I will tell him. In the first place, the bill 



304 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

already conferred all the power which Congress had, by giving the 
people the whole power over the subject. Chase offered a proviso 
that they might abolish slavery, which by implication would convey 
the idea that they could prohibit by not introducing that institution. 
General Cass asked him to modify his amendment, so as to provide 
that the people might either prohibit or introduce slavery, and thus 
make it fair and equal. Chase refused to so modify his proviso, and 
then General Cass and all the rest of us voted it down. Those facts 
appear on the journals and debates of Congress, where Mr. Lincoln 
found the charge, and if he had told the whole truth, there would 
have been no necessity for me to occupy your time in explaining the 
matter. 

Mr. Lincoln wants to know why the word " State," as well as 
'* Territory," was put into the Nebraska bill ? I will tell him. It 
was put there to meet just such false arguments as he has been ad- 
ducing. That first, not only the people of the Territories should do 
as the J' pleased, but that when they come to be admitted as States, 
they should come into the Union with or without slavery, as the 
people determined. I meant to knock in the head this Abolition 
doctrine of Mr. Lincoln's, that there shall be no more slave States, 
even if the people want them. And it does not do for him to s&y, 
or for any other Black Republican to say, that there is nobody m 
favor of the doctrine of no more slave States, and that nobody wants 
to interfere with the right of the people to do as they please. What 
was the origin of the Missouri difficulty and the Missouri Com- 
promise ? The people of Missouri formed a constitution as a slave 
State, and asked admission into the Union, but the Free-soil party of 
the North, being in a majoritj^, refused to admit her because she had 
slavery as one of her institutions. Hence this first slavery agitation 
arose upon a State and not upon a Territory, and yet Mr. Lincoln 
does not know why the word State was placed in the Kansas-Ne- 
braska bill. The whole Abolition agitation arose on that doctrine 
of prohibiting a State from coming in with slavery or not, as it 
pleased, and that same doctrine is here in this Repubhcan platform 
of 1854 ; it has never been repealed ; and every Black Republican 
stands pledged by that platform never to vote for any man who is 
not in favor of it. Yet Mr. Lincoln does not know that there is a 
man in the world who is in favor of preventing a State from coming 
in as it pleases, notwithstanding the Springfield platform says that 
they, the Republican party, will not allow a State to come in under 
such circumstances. He is an ignorant man. ^ 

Now you see that upon these very points I am as far from bringing 
Mr. Lincoln up to the line as I ever was before. He does not want 
to avow his principles. I do want to avow mine, as clear as sun- 
light in midday. Democracy is founded upon the eternal principles 
of right. The plainer these principles are avowed before the people, 
the stronger will be the support which they will receive. I only 
wish I had the power to make them so clear that they would shine 
in the heavens for every man, woman, and child to read. The first 
of those principles that I would proclaim would be in opposition to 
Mr. Lincoln's doctrine of uniformity between the different States, 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 305 

and I would declare instead the sovereign right of each State to 
decide the slavery question as well as all other domestic questions 
for themselves, without interference from any other State or power 
whatsoever. 

When that principle is recognized you will have peace and har- 
mony and fraternal feeling between all the States of this Union; 
nntil you do recognize that doctrine there will be sectional warfare 
agitating and distracting the country. What does Mr. Lincoln pro- 
pose? He says that the Union cannot exist divided into free and 
slave States. If it cannot endiire thus divided, then he must strive to 
make them all free or all slave, which will inevitably bring about a 
dissolution of the Union. 

Gentlemen, I am told that my time is out, and I am obliged to 
stop. 

August 22, 1858. — Letter to J. O. Cunningham. 

Ottawa, August 22, 1858. 
J. O. Cunningham, Esq. 

My dear Sir : Yours of the 18th, signed as secretary of the Repub- 
lican club, is received. In the matter of making speeches I am a 
good deal pressed by invitations from almost all quarters, and while 
I hope to be at Urbana some time during the canvass, I cannot yet 
say when. Can you not see me at Monticello on the 6th of September 1 

Douglas and I, for the first time this canvass, crossed swords here 
yesterday ; the fire flew some, and I am glad to know I am yet alive. 
There was a vast concourse of people — more than could get near 
enough to hear. Yours as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 

August 27, 1858. — Second Joint Debate at Freeport, Illinois. 

Mr. LincoMs Opening Speech. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : On Saturday last. Judge Douglas and my- 
self first met in public discussion. He spoke one hour, I an hour 
and a half, and he replied for half an hour. The order is now re- 
versed. I am to speak an hour, he an hour and a half, and then I 
am to reply for half an hour. I propose to devote myself during 
the first hour to the scope of what was brought within the range of 
his half-hour speech at Ottawa. Of course there was brought within 
the scope of that half -hour's speech something of his own opening 
speech. In the course of that opening argument Judge Douglas 
proposed to me seven distinct interrogatories. In my speech of an 
hour and a half, I attended to some other parts of his speech, and 
incidentally, as I thought, answered one of the interrogatories then. 
I then distinctly intimated to him that I would answer the rest of 
his inteiTOgatories on condition only that he should agree to answer 
as many for me. He made no intimation at the time of the proposi- 
tion, nor did he in his reply allude at all to that suggestion of mine. 
I do him no injustice in saying that he occupied at least half of his 
reply in dealing with me as though I had refused to answer his in- 
VOL. I.— 20. 



306 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

terrogatories. I now propose that I will answer any of the inter- 
rogatories, upon condition that he will answer questions from me not 
exceeding the same number. I give him an opportunity to respond. 
The judge remains silent. I now say that I will answer his inter- 
rogatories, whether he answers mine or not ; and that after I have 
done so, I shall propound mine to him. 

I have supposed myself, since the organization of the Republican 
party at Bloomingtou, in May, 1856, bound as a party man by the 
platiorms of the party then and since. If in any interrogatories 
which I shall answer I go beyond the scope of what is within these 
platforms, it will bo perceived that no one is responsible but myself. 
Having said this much, I will take up the judge's interrogatories as 
I find them printed in the Chicago *' Times," and answer them seria- 
tim. In order that there may be no mistake about it, I have copied 
the interrogatories in writing, and also my answers to them. The 
first one of these inteiTOgatories is in these words : 

Question 1. ''I desire to know whether Lincoln to-day stands as 
he did in 1854, in favor of the unconditional repeal of the fugitive- 
slave law?" 

Answer. I do not now, nor ever did, stand in favor of the uncon- 
ditional repeal of the fugitive-slave law. 

Q. 2. '' I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to-day 
as he did in 1854, against the admission of any more slave States 
into the Union, even if the people want them?" 

A. I do not now, nor ever did, stand pledged against the admission 
of any more slave States into the Union. 

Q. 3. '^ I want to know whether he stands pledged against the ad- 
mission of a new State into the Union with such a constitution as 
the people of that State may see fit to make ? " 

A. I do not stand pledged against the admission of a new State 
into the Union with such a constitution as the people of that State 
may see fit to make. 

Q. 4. "■ I want to know whether he stands to-day pledged to the 
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia ? " 

A. I do not stand to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia. 

Q. 5. " I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to the 
prohibition of the slave-trade between the different States?" 

A. I do not stand pledged to the prohibition of the slave-trade 
between the different States. 

Q. 6. '' I desire to know whether he stands pledged to prohibit 
slavery in all the Territories of the United States, North as well 
as South of the Missouri Compromise line? " 

A. I am impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to a belief in the 
right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United 
States Territories. 

Q. 7. "I desire him to answer whether he is opposed to the 
acquisition of any new territory unless slavery is first prohibited 
therein ? " 

A. I am not generally opposed to honest acquisition of territory ; 
and, in any given case, I would or would not oppose such acquisition, 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 307 

accordingly as I might think such acquisition would or would not 
aggravate the slavery question among ourselves. 

Now, my friends, it will be perceived upon an examination of these 
questions and answers, that so far I have only answered that I 
was not pledged to this, that, or the other. The judge has not 
framed his interrogatories to ask me anything more than this, and 
I have answered in strict accordance with the interrogatories, and 
have answered truly that I am not pledged at all upon any of the 
points to which I have answered. But I am not disposed to hang 
upon the exact form of his interrogatory. I am really disposed to 
take up at least some of these questious, and state what I really 
think upon them. 

As to the first one, in regard to the fugitive-slave law, I have 
never hesitated to say, and I do not now hesitate to say, that I think, 
under the Constitution of the United States, the people of the 
Southern States are entitled to a congressional fugitive-slave law. 
Having said that, I have had nothing to say in regard to the existing 
fugitive-slave law, further than that I think it should have been 
framed so as to be free from some of the objections that pertain to 
it, without lessening its efficiency. And inasmuch as we are not 
now in an agitation in regard to an alteration or modification of that 
law, I would not be the man to introduce it as a new subject of 
agitation upon the general question of slavery. 

In regard to the other question, of whether I am pledged to the 
admission of any more slave States into the Union, I state to you 
very frankly that I would be exceedingly sorry ever to be put in a 
position of having to pass upon that question. I should be exceed- 
ingly glad to know that there would never be another slave State 
admitted into the Union ; but I must add, that if slavery shall be 
kept out of the Territories during the territorial existence of any 
one given Territory, and then the people shall, having a fair chance 
and a clear field, when they come to adopt the Constitution, do such 
an extraordinary thing as to adopt a slave constitution, uninfluenced 
by the actual presence of the institution among them, I see no alter- 
native, if we own the country, but to admit them into the Union. 

The third interrogatory is answered by the answer to the second, 
it being, as I conceive, the same as the second. 

The fourth one is in regard to the abolition of slavery in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia. In relation to that, I have my mind very dis- 
tinctly made up. I should be exceedingly glad to see slavery abol- 
ishediu the District of Columbia. I believe that Congress possesses 
the constitutional power to abolish it. Yet as a member of Con- 
gress, I should not with my present views be in favor of endeavor- 
ing to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia unless it would 
be upon these conditions : First, that the abolition should be grad- 
ual; second, that it should be on a vote of the majority of qualified 
voters in the District ; and third, that compensation should be made 
to unwilling owners. With these three conditions, I confess I would 
be exceedingly glad to see Congress abolish slavery in the District 
of Columbia, and, in the language of Henry Clay, ^' sweep from our 
capital that foul blot upon our nation." 



308 ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OP ABKAHAM LINCOLN 

In regard to the fifth interrogatory, I must say here that as to the 
question of the abolition of the slave-trade between the different 
States, I can truly answer, as I have, that I am pledged to nothing 
about it. It is a subject to which I have not given that mature consid- 
eration that would make me feel authorized to state a position so as 
to hold myself entirely bound by it. In other words, that question has 
never been prominently enough before me to induce me to investigate 
whether we really have the constitutional power to do it. I could 
investigate it if I had sufficient time to bring myself to a conclusion 
upon that subject, but I have not done so, and I say so frankly to 
you here and to Judge Douglas. I must say, however, that if I should 
be of opinion that Congress does possess the constitutional power to 
abolish the slave-trade among the different States, I should still not 
be in favor of the exercise of that power unless upon some conser- 
vative principle as I conceive it, akin to what I have said in relation 
to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. 

My answer as to whether I desire that slavery should be prohibited 
in all the Territories of the United States is full and explicit within 
itself, and cannot be made clearer by any comments of mine. So I 
suppose in regard to the question whether I am opposed to the ac- 
quisition of any more territory unless slavery is first prohibited 
therein, my ausAver is such that I could add nothing b}' way of illus- 
tration, or making myself better understood, than the answer which 
I have placed in writing. 

Now in all this the judge has me, and he has me on the record. I 
suppose he had flattered himself that I was really entertaining one 
set of opinions for one place and another set for another place — that 
I was afraid to say at one place what I uttered at another. What I 
am saying here I suppose I say to a vast audience as strongh" tending 
to Abolitionism as any audience in the State of Illinois, and I believe 
I am saying that which, if it would be offensive to anj^ persons and 
render them enemies to myself, would be offensive to persons in this 
audience. 

I now proceed to propound to the judge the interrogatories so far 
as I have framed them. I will bring forward a new instalment wheu 
I get them ready. I will bring them forward now, only reaching to 
number four. 

The first one is : 

Question 1. If the people of Kansas shall, by means entirely un- 
objectionable in all other respects, adopt a State constitution, and 
ask admission into the Union under it, before they have the requisite 
number of inhabitants according to the English bill, — some ninety- 
three thousand, — will you vote to admit them? 

Q. 2. Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful 
way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude 
slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State constitu- 
tion? 

Q. 3. If the Supreme Court of the United States shall decide that 
States cannot exclude slavery from their limits, are you in favor of 
acquiescing in, adopting, and folloAA-iug such decision as a rule of 
political action ? 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 309 

Q. 4. Ai'e you in favor of acquiring additional territory, in disre- 
gard of how such acquisition may anect the nation on the slavery 
question ? 

As introductory to these interrogatories which Judge Douglas 
propounded to me at Ottawa, he read a set of resolutions which he 
said Judge Trumbull and myself had participated in adopting, in 
the first Republican State convention, held at Springfield, in Octo- 
ber, 1854. He insisted that I and Judge Trumbull, and perhaps the 
entire Republican party, were responsible for the doctrines contained 
in the set of resolutions which he read, and I understand that it was 
from that set of resolutions that he deduced the interrogatories 
which he propounded to me, using these resolutions as a sort of au- 
thority for propounding those questions to me. Now I say here to-day 
that I do not answer his interrogatories because of their springing 
at all from that set of resolutions which he read. I answered tnem 
because Judge Douglas thought fit to ask them. I do not now, nor 
ever did, recognize any responsibility upon myself in that set of 
resolutions. When I replied to him on that occasion, I assured him 
that I never had anything to do with them. I repeat here to-day, 
that I never in any possible form had anything to do with that set 
of resolutions. It turns out, I believe, that those resolutions were 
never passed at any convention held in Springfield. It turns out that 
they were never passed at any convention or any public meeting 
that I had any part in. I believe it turns out, in addition to all this, 
that there was not, in the fall of 1854, any convention holding a 
session in Springfield calling itself a Republican State convention; 
yet it is true there was a convention, or assemblage of men calling 
themselves a convention, at Springfield, that did pass some resolu- 
tions. But so little did I reaUy know of the proceedings of that 
convention, or what set of resolutions they had passed, though hav- 
ing a general knowledge that there had been such an assemblage 
of men there, that when Judge Douglas read the resolutions, I really 
did not know but that they had been the resolutions passed then and 
there. I did not question that they were the resolutions adopted. 
For I could not bring myself to suppose that Judge Douglas could 
say what he did upon this subject without knowing that it was true. 
I contented myself, on that occasion, with denying, as I truly could, 
all connection with them, not denying or affirming whether they 
were passed at Springfield. Now it turns out that he had got hold 
of some resolutions passed at some convention or public meeting in 
Kane County. I wish to say here, that I don't conceive that in any 
fair and just mind this discovery relieves me at aU. I had just as 
much to do with the convention in Kane County as that at Spring- 
field. I am just as much responsible for the resolutions at Kane 
County as those at Springfield, the amount of the responsibility 
being exactly nothing in either case ; no more than there would be 
in regard to a set of resolutions passed in the moon. 

I allude to this extraordinary matter in this canvass for some 
farther purpose than anything yet advanced. Judge Douglas did 
not make his statement upon that occasion as matters that he believed 
to be true, but he stated them roundly as being true, in such form 



310 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

as to pledge his veracity for their truth. When the whole matter 
turns out as it does, and when we consider who Judge Douglas is, — 
that he is a distinguished senator of the United States ; that he has 
served nearly twelve years as such ; that his chai^acter is not at all 
limited as an ordinary senator of the United States, but that his name 
has become of world-wide renown, — it is most extraordinary that he 
should so far forget all the suggestions of justice to an adversary, 
or of prudence to himself, as to ventui'e upon the assertion of that 
which the slightest investigation would have shown him to be wholly 
false. I can only account for his having done so upon the supposi- 
tion that that evil genius which has attended him through his life, 
giving to him an apparent astonishing prosperity, such as to lead veiy 
many good men to doubt there being any advantage in virtue over 
vice — I say I can only account for it on the supposition that that 
evil genius* has at last made up its mind to forsake him. 

And I may add that another extraordinary feature of the judge's 
conduct in this canvass — made more extraordinary by this incident 
— is, that he is in the habit, in almost all the speeches he makes, of 
charging falsehood upon his adversaries, myself and others. I now 
ask whether he is able to find in anything that Judge Trumbull, 
for instance, has said, or in anything that I have said, a justification 
at all compared with what we have, in this instance, for that sort of 
vulgarity. 

I have been in the habit of charging as a matter of belief on my 
part, that, in the introduction of the Nebraska bill into Congress, 
there was a conspiracy to make slavery perpetual and national. I 
have arranged from time to time the evidence which establishes and 
proves the truth of this charge. I recurred to this charge at Ottawa. 
I shall not now have time to dwell upon it at very great length; but 
inasmuch as Judge Douglas in his reply of half an hour made some 
points upon me in relation to it, I propose noticing a few of them. 

The judge insists that, in the first speech I made, in which I very 
distinctly made that charge, he thought for a good while I was in 
fun — that I was playful — that I was not sincere about it — and 
that he only grew angry and somewhat excited when he found that 
I insisted upon it as a matter of earnestness. He says he character- 
ized it as a falsehood as far as I implicated his moral character in 
that transaction. Well, I did not know, till he presented that view, 
that I had implicated his moral character. He is very much in the 
habit, when he argues me up into a position I never thought of 
occupying, of very cozily saying he has no doubt Lincoln is " con- 
scientious" in saying so. He should remember that I did not know 
but what he was altogether "conscientious" in that matter. I can 
conceive it possible for men to conspire to do a good thing, and I 
really find nothing in Judge Douglas's course of arguments that is 
contrary to or inconsistent with his belief of a conspiracy to nation- 
alize and spread slavery as being a good and blessed thing, and so 
I hope he will understand that I do not at all question but that in 
all this matter he is entirely *' conscientious" 

But to draw your attention to one of the points I made in this 
case, beginning at the beginning. When the Nebraska bill was in- 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABBAHAM LINCOLN 311 

troduced, or a short time afterward, by an amendment, I believe, it 
was provided that it must be considered '^ the true intent and mean- 
ing of this act not to legislate slavery into any State or Territory, 
or to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly 
free to form and regulate their own domestic institutions in their 
own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States," 
I have called his attention to the fact that when he and some others 
began arguing that they were giving an increased degree of liberty 
to the people in the Territories over and above what they formerly 
had on the question of slavery, a question was raised whether the 
law was enacted to give such unconditional liberty to the people; 
and to test the sincerity of this mode of argument, Mr. Chase, 
of Ohio, introduced an amendment, in which he made the law — if 
the amendment were adopted — expressly declare that the people of 
the Territory should have the power to exclude slavery if they saw 
fit. I have asked attention also to the fact that Judge Douglas, and 
those who acted with him, voted that amendment down, notwith- 
standing it expressed exactly the thing they said was the true intent 
and meaning of the law. I have called attention to the fact that in 
subsequent times a decision of the Supreme Court has been made 
in which it has been declared that a Territorial Legislature has no 
constitutional right to exclude slavery. And I have argued and 
said that for men who did intend that the people of the Territory 
should have the right to exclude slavery absolutely and uncondi- 
tionally, the voting down of Chase's amendment is wholly inexplic- 
able. It is a puzzle — a riddle. But I have said that with men who 
did look forward to snah a decision, or who had it in contemplation 
that such a decision of the Supreme Court would or might be made, 
the voting down of that amendment would be perfectly rational and 
intelligible. It would keep Congress from coming in collision with 
the decision when it was made. Anybody can conceive that if there 
was an intention or expectation that such a decision was to foUow, 
it would not be a very desirable party attitude to get into for the 
Supreme Court — all or nearly all its members belonging to the same 
party — to decide one way, when the party in Congress had decided 
the other way. Hence it would be very rational for men expecting 
such a decision to keep the niche in that law clear for it. After 
pointing this out, I tell Judge Douglas that it looks to me as though 
here was the reason why Chase's amendment was voted down. I 
tell him that as he did it, and knows why he did it, if it was done 
for a reason different from this, he knows what that reason was, 
and can tell us what it was. I tell him, also, it will be vastly more 
satisfactory to the country for him to give some other plausible, in- 
telligible reason why it was voted down than to stand upon his dig- 
nity and call people liars. WeU, on Saturday he did make his 
answer, and what do you think it was ? He says if I had only taken 
upon myself to tell the whole truth about that amendment of 
Chase's, no explanation would have been necessary on his part — or 
words to that effect. Now I say here that I am quite unconscious 
of having suppressed anything material to the case, and I am very 
frank to admit if there is any sound reason other than that which 



312 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

appeared to me material, it is quite fair for him to present it. What 
reason does he propose ? That when Chase came forward with his 
amendment expressly authorizing the people to exclude slavery from 
the limits of every Territory, General Cass proposed to Chase, if he 
(Chase) would add to his amendment that the people should have 
the power to introduce or exclude, they would let it go. 

This is substantially all of his reply. And because Chase would 
not do that they voted his amendment down. Well, it turns out, I 
believe, upon examination, that General Cass took some part in the 
little running debate upon that amendment, and then ran away and 
did not vote on it at all. Is not that the fact ? So confident, as I 
think, was General Cass that there was a snake somewhere about, he 
chose to run away from the whole thing. This is an inference I 
draw from the fact that though he took part in the debate his name 
does not appear in the ayes and noes. But does Judge Douglas's 
reply amount to a satisfactory answer ? [Cries of " Yes," " Yes," and 
" No," " No."] There is some little difference of opinion here. But 
I ask attention to a few more views bearing on the question of 
whether it amounts to a satisfactory answer. The men who were de- 
termined that that amendment should not get into the bill, and spoil 
the place where the Dred Scott decision was to come in, sought an 
excuse to get rid of it somewhere. One of these ways — one of these 
excuses — was to ask Chase to add to his proposed amendment a 
provision that the people might introduce slavery if they wanted to. 
They very well knew Chase would do no such thing — that Mr. 
Chase was one of the men differing from them on the broad prin- 
ciple of his insisting that freedom was better than slavery — a man 
who would not consent to enact a law penned with his own hand, by 
which he was made to recognize slavery on the one hand and liberty 
on the other as precisely equal ; and when they insisted on his doing 
this, they very well knew they insisted on that which he would not 
for a moment think of doing, and that they were only bluffing him. 
I believe — I have not, since he made his answer, had a chance to ex- 
amine the journals or " Congressional Globe," and therefore speak 
from memory — I believe the state of the bill at that time, according 
to parliamentary rules, was such that no member could propose an 
additional amendment to Chase's amendment. I rather think this is 
the truth — the judge shakes his head. Very well. I would like to 
know then, if they wanted Chase's amendment fixed over, why some- 
body else could not have offered to do it? If they wanted it amended, 
why did they not offer the amendment? Why did they stand there 
taunting and quibbling at Chase f Why did they not put it in 
themselves? But to put it on the other ground : suppose that there 
was such an amendment offered, and Chase's was an amendment to 
an amendment; until one is disposed of by parliamentary law, you 
cannot pile another on. Then all these gentlemen had to do was to 
vote Chase's on, and then, in the amended form in wliich the whole 
stood, add their own amendment to it if they wanted to put it in 
that shape. This was all they were obliged to do, and the ayes and 
noes show that there were thirty-six who voted it down, against ten 
who voted in favor of it. The thirty-six held entire sway and con- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 313 

trol. They could in some form or other have put that bill in the 
exact shape they wanted. If there was a rule preventing their 
amending it at the time, they could pass that, and then, Chase's 
amendment being merged, put it in the shape they wanted. They 
did not choose to do so, but they went into a quibble with Chase to 
get him to add what they knew he would not add, and because he 
would not, they stand upon that flimsy pretext for voting down what 
they argued was the meaning and intent of their own bill. They left 
room thereby for this Dred Scott decision, which goes very far to 
make slavery national throughout the United States. 

I pass one or two points I have because m}^ time will very soon 
expire, but I must be allowed to say that Judge Douglas recurs 
a^ain, as he did upon one or two other occasions, to the enormity of 
Lincoln — an insignificant individual like Lincoln — upon his ipse 
dixit charging a conspiracy upon a large number of members of 
Congress, the Supreme Court, and two Presidents, to nationalize 
slavery. I want to say that, in the fii'st place, I have made no chai'ge 
of this sort upon my ipse dixit. I have only arraj^ed the e\adenee 
tending to prove it, and presented it to the understanding of others, 
sajdng what I think it proves, but giving you the means of judging 
whether it proves it or not. This is precisely what I have done. I 
have not placed it upon my ijjse dixit at all. On this occasion, I 
wish to recall his attention to a piece of evidence which I brought 
forward at Ottawa on Saturday, showing that he had made substan- 
tially the same charge against substantially the same persons, ex- 
cluding his dear self from the category. I ask him to give some 
attention to the evidence which I brought forward, that he himself 
had discovered a " fatal blow being struck " against the right of the 
people to exclude slavery from their limits, which fatal blow he as- 
sumed as in evidence in an article in the Washington "Union," pub- 
lished " by authority." I ask by whose authority ? He discovers a 
similar or identical provision in the Lecompton constitution. Made 
by whom ? The framers of that constitution. Advocated by whom ? 
By all the members of the party in the nation, who advocated the intro- 
duction of Kansas into the Union under the Lecompton constitution. 

I have asked his attention to the e\'idence that he arrayed to 
prove that such a fatal blow was being struck, and to the facts 
which he brought forward in support of that charge — being identi- 
cal with the one which he thinks so villainous in me. He pointed 
it not at a newspaper editor merely, but at the President and his 
cabinet, and the members of Congress advocating the Lecompton 
constitution, and those framing that instrument. I must again be 
permitted to remind him, that although my i2)se dixit may not be as 
great as his, yet it somewhat reduces the force of his calling my at- 
tention to the enormity of my making a like charge against him. 

Go on. Judge Douglas. 

Mr. Douglas's Reply in the Freeport Joint Debate. 

Ladies and Oentlemen: The silence with which you have listened 
to Mr. Lincoln during his hour is creditable to this vast audience, 



314 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

composed of men of various political parties. Nothing is more hon- 
orable to any lai'ge mass of people assembled for the purpose of a 
fair discussion, than that kind and respectful attention that is yielded 
not only to your political friends, but to those who are opposed to 
you in politics. 

I am glad that at last I have brought Mr. Lincoln to the conclu- 
sion that he had better define his position on certain political ques- 
tions to which I called his attention at Ottawa. He there showed no 
disposition, no inclination, to answer them. I did not present idle 
questions for him to answer merely for my gratification. I laid the 
foundation for those interrogatories by showing that they constituted 
the platform of the party whose nominee he is for the Senate. I did 
not presume that I had the right to catechize him as I saw proper, 
unless I showed that his party, or a majority of it, stood upon the 
platform, and were in favor of the propositions upon which my ques- 
tions were based. I desired simply to know, inasmuch as he had 
been nominated as the first, last, and only choice of his party, whether 
he concm-red in the platform which that party had adopted for its 
government. In a few moments I will proceed to review the answers 
which he has given to these interrogatories, but in order to relieve 
his anxiety T will first respond to these which he has presented to me. 
Mark you, he has not presented interrogatories which have ever re- 
ceived the sanction of the party with which I am acting, and hence 
he has no other foundation for them than his own curiosity. 

First, he desires to know if the people of Kansas shall form a 
constitution by means entirely proper and unobjectionable and ask 
admission into the Union as a State, before they have the requisite 
population for a member of Congress, whether I will vote for that 
admission. Well, now, I regret exceedingly that he did not answer 
that interrogatory himself before he put it to me, in order that we 
might understand, and not be left to infer, on which side he is. Mr. 
Trumbull, during the last session of Congi-ess, voted from the begin- 
ning to the end against the admission of Oregon, although a free 
State, because she had not the requisite population for a member of 
Congress. Mr. Trumbull would not consent, under any circumstances, 
to let a State, free or slave, come into the Union until it had the re- 
quisite population. As Mr. Trumbull is in the field, fighting for Mr. 
Lincoln, I would like to have Mr. Lincoln answer his own question 
and tell me whether he is fighting Trumbull on that issue or not. 
But I will answer his question. In reference to Kansas, it is my 
opinion that as she has population enough to constitute a slave 
State, she has people enough for a free State. I will not make Kansas 
an exceptional case to the other States of the Union. I hold it to be 
a sound rule of universal application to require a Territory to contain 
the requisite population for a member of Congress, before it is ad- 
mitted as a State into the Union. I made that proposition in the 
Senate in 185G, and I renewed it during the last session, in a bill pro- 
viding that no Territory of the United States should form a consti- 
tution and apply for admission until it had the requisite population. 
On another occasion I proposed that neither Kansas, nor any other 
Territory, should be admitted until it had the requisite population. 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 315 

Congress did not adopt any of my propositions containing this gen- 
eral rule, but did make an exception of Kansas. I will stand by 
that exception. Either Kansas must come in as a free State, with 
whatever population she may have, or the rule must be applied to all 
the other Territories alike. I therefore answer at once that, it having 
been decided that Kansas has people enough for a slave State, I hold 
that she has enough for a free State. I hope Mr. Lincoln is satisfied 
with my answer; and now I would like to get his answer to his own 
interrogatory — whether or not he will vote to admit Kansas before 
she has the requisite population. I want to know whether he will 
vote to admit Oregon before that Territory has the requisite popula- 
tion. Mr. Trumbull will not, and the same reason that commits Mr. 
Trumbull against the admission of Oregou commits him against 
Kansas, even if she should apply for admission as a free State. If 
there is any siucerity, any truth, in the argument of Mr. Trumbull in 
the Senate, against the admission of Oregon because she had not 
93,420 people, although her population was larger than that of Kan- 
sas, he stands pledged against the admission of both Oregon and 
Kansas until they have 93,420 inhabitants. I would like Mr. Lincoln 
to answer this question. I would like him to take his own medicine. 
If he differs with Mr. Trumbull, let him answer his argument against 
the admission of Oregou, instead of poking questions at me. 

The next question propounded to me by Mr. Lincoln is: Can the 
people of a Territory in any lawful way, against the wishes of any 
citizen of the Uuited States, exclude slavery from their limits prior 
to the formation of a State constitution! I answer emphatically, as 
Mr. Lincoln has heard me answer a hundred times from every stump 
in Illinois, that in my opinion the people of a Territory can, by law- 
ful means, exclude slavery from their limits prior to the formation 
of a State constitution. 5lr. Lincoln knew that I had answered that 
question over and over again. He heard me argue the Nebraska 
bill on that principle all over the State in 1854, in 1855, and in 1856, 
and he has no excuse for pretending to be in doubt as to my posi- 
tion on that question. It matters not what way the Supreme Court 
may hereafter decide as to the abstract question whether slavery may 
or may not go into a Territory under the Constitution, the people 
have the lawful means to introduce it or exclude it as they please, for 
the reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere un- 
less it is supported by local police regulations. Those police regu- 
lations can only be established by the local legislature, and if the 
people are opposed to slavery they will elect representatives to that 
body who will by unfriendly legislation effectually prevent the in- 
troduction of it into their midst. If, on the contrary, they are for 
it, their legislation will favor its extension. Hence, no matter what 
the decision of the Supreme Court may be on that abstract question, 
still the right of the people to make a slave Territory or a free Ter- 
ritory is perfect and complete under the Nebraska bill. I hope Mr. 
Lincoln deems my answer satisfactory on that point. 

In this connection I will notice the charge which he has introduced 
in relation to Mr. Chase's amendment. I thought that I had chased 
that amendment out of Mi*. Lincoln's brain at Ottawa, but it seems 



316 ADDBESSES AND LETTEKS OP ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

that still haunts his imag:ination, and he is not yet satisfied. I had 
supposed that he would be ashamed to press that question further. 
He is a lawyer, and has been a member of Congi'ess, and has occu- 
pied his time and amused you by telling you about parliamentary 
proceedings. He ought to have known better than to trj' to palm 
off his miserable impositions upon this intelligent audience. The 
Nebraska bill provided that the legislative power and authority of 
the said Territory should extend to all rightful subjects of legislation 
consistent with the organic act and the Constitution of the United 
States. It did not make anv exception as to slavery, but gave all 
the power that it was possible for Congress to give, without violat- 
ing the Constitution, to the territorial legislature, with no exception 
or limitation on the subject of slavery at all. The language of that 
bill which I have quoted gave the full power and the full authority 
over the subject of slavery, affirmatively and negatively, to intro- 
duce it or exclude it, so far as tlie Constitution of the United States 
would permit. Wliat more could Mr. Chase give by his amendment? 
Nothing. He offered his amendment for the identical purpose for 
which Mr. Lincoln is using it, to enable demagogues in the country 
to try and deceive the people. 

His amendment was to this effect. It provided that the legis- 
lature should have the power to exclude slavery; and General 
Cass suggested, " Why not give the power to introduce as well as 
exclude f " The answer was, they have the power already in the bill 
to do both. Chase was afraid his amendment would be adopted if 
he put the alternative proposition and so make it fair both ways, 
but would not yield. He offered it for the purpose of having it re- 
jected. He offered it, as he has himself avowed over and over again, 
simply to make capital out of it for the stump. He expected that 
it would be capital for small politicians in the country, and that 
they would make an effort to deceive the people with it; and he was 
not mistaken, for Lincoln is carrying out the plan admirably. Lin- 
coln knows that the Nebraska bill, without Chase's amendment, gave 
all the power which the Constitution would permit. Could Congress 
confer any more! Could Congress go beyond the Constitution of 
the country? "We gave all — a full grant, with no exception in regard 
to slavery one way or the other. We left that question as we left 
all others, to be decided by the people for themselves, just as they 
pleased. I will not occupy my time on this question. I have argued 
it before all over Illinois. I have argued it in this beautiful city of 
Freeport ; I have argued it in the North, the South, the East, and. 
the West, avowing the same sentiments and the same principles. I 
have not been afraid to avow my sentiments up here for fear I would 
be trotted down into Egj^pt. 

The third question which Mr. Lincoln presented is, if the Supreme 
Court of the United States shall decide that a State of this Union 
cannot exclude slavery from its own limits, will I submit to it ? I 
am amazed that Lincoln should ask such a question. ['^ A school- 
bov knows better.''] Yes, a school-boy does know better. Mr. Lin- 
cotn's object is to cast an imputation upon the Supreme Court. He 
knows that there never was but one man in America claiming any 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 317 

degree of iutelligeuce or decency, who ever for a moment pretended 
such a thing. It is true that the Washington " Union," in an article 
published on the 17th of last December, did put forth that doctrine, 
and I denounced the article on the floor of the Senate, in a speech 
which Mr. Lincoln now pretends was against the President. The 
" Union " had claimed that slavery had a right to go into the free 
States, and that any provision in the constitution or laws of the free 
States to the contrary was null and void. I denounced it in the 
Senate, as I said before, and I was the first man who did. Lincoln's 
friends, Trumbull, and Seward, and Hale, and Wilson, and the 
whole Black Republican side of the Senate were silent. They left it 
to me to denounce it. And what was the reply made to me on that 
occasion ? Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, got up and undertook to lecture 
me on the ground that I ought not to have deemed the article wor- 
thy of notice, and ought not to have replied to it ; that there was 
not one man, woman, or child south of the Potomac, in any slave 
State, who did not repudiate any such pretension. Mr. Lincoln 
knows that that reply was made on the spot, and yet now he asks 
this question. He might as well ask me, suppose Mr. Lincoln should 
steal a horse, would I sanction it ? and it would be as genteel in me 
to ask him, in the event he stole a horse, V\^hat ought to be done with 
him. He casts an imputation upon the Supreme Court of the United 
States by supposing that they would violate the Constitution of the 
United States. I tell him that such a thing is not possible. It 
would be an act of moral treason that no man on the bench could 
ever descend to. Mr. Lincoln himself would never in his partizan 
feelings so far forget what was right as to be guilty of such an act. 

The fourth question of Mr. Lincoln is : Are you in favor of acquir- 
ing additional territory, in disregard as to how such acquisition 
may affect the Union on the slavery question ? This question is 
very ingeniously and cunningly put. 

The Black Republican creed lays it down expressly, that under no 
circumstances shall we acquire any more territory unless slavery is 
first prohibited in the country. I ask Mr. Lincoln whether he is in 
favor of that proposition. Are you [addressing Mr. Lincoln] op- 
posed to the acquisition of any more territory, under any circum- 
stances, unless slavery is prohibited in it ? That he does not like 
to answer. When I ask him whether he stands up to that article in 
the platform of his party, he turns, Yankee-fashion, and, without 
answering it, asks me whether I am in favor of acquiring territory 
without regard to how it may affect the Union on the slavery ques- 
tion. I answer that whenever it becomes necessary, in our growth 
and progress, to acquire more territory, that I am in favor of it, with- 
out reference to the question of slavery, and when we have acquired 
it, I will leave the people free to do as they please, either to make it 
slave or free territory, as they prefer. It is idle to tell me or you 
that we have territory enough. Our fathers supposed that we had 
enough when our territory extended to the Mississippi River, but a 
few years' growth and expansion satisfied them that we needed 
more, and the Louisiana territory, from the west branch of the 
Mississippi to the British possessions, was acquired. Then we ac- 



318 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

quired Oregon, then California and New Mexico. We have enough 
now for the present, but this is a young and a growing nation. It 
swarms as often as a hive of bees, and as new swarms are turned 
out each year, there must be hives in which they can gather and 
make theii- honey. In less than fifteen years, if the same progress 
that has distinguished this countr}^ for the last fifteen years con- 
tinues, every foot of vacant laud between this and the Pacific ocean, 
owned by the United States, wiU be occupied. Will you not con- 
tinue to increase at the end of fifteen years as well as now ? I tell 
you, increase, and multiply, and expand, is the law of this nation's 
existence. You cannot limit this great republic by mere boundary 
lines, saying, " Thus far shalt thou go, and no further." Any one of 
vou gentlemen might as well say to a son twelve years old that he 
IS big enough, and must not grow any larger, and in order to pre- 
vent his growth put a hoop around him to keep him to his present 
size. What would be the result ? Either the hoop must burst and 
be rent asunder, or the child must die. So it would be with this 
great nation. With our natural increase, growing with a rapidity 
unknown in any other part of the globe, with the tide of emigration 
that is fleeing from despotism in the Old World to seek refuge in our 
own, there is a constant torrent pouring into this country that re- 
quires more land, more territory upon which to settle, and just as 
fast as our interests aud our destiny require additional territory in 
the North, in the South, or on the islands of the ocean, I am for it, 
and when we acquire it, will leave the people, according to the 
Nebraska bill, free to do as they please on the subject of slavery 
and every other question. 

I trust now that Mr. Lincoln wiU deem himself answered on his 
four points. He racked his brain so much in devising these four 
questions that he exhausted himself, and had not strength enough 
to invent the others. As soon as he is able to hold a councO with 
his advisers, Lovejoy, Farnswortli, and Fred Douglass, he will frame 
and propound others. [" Good, good."] You Black Republicans who 
say good, I have no doubt think that they are all good men. I have 
reason to recollect that some people in this country think that Fred 
Douglass is a very good man. The last time I came here to make a 
speech, while talking from the stand to you, people of Freeport, as 
I am d.oiug to-day, I saw a carriage, and a magnificent one it was, 
drive up and take a position on the outside of the crowd ; a beautiful 
young lady was sitting on the box-seat, whilst Fred Douglass and 
her mother reclined inside, and the owner of the carriage acted as 
driver. I saw this in your ov/n town. [" What of it ? "] All I have 
to say of it is this, that if you Black Republicans think that the 
negro ought to be on a social equality with your wives and daugh- 
ters, and ride in a carriage with your wife, whilst you drive the team, 
vou have perfect right to do so. I am told that one of Fred Doug- 
lass's kinsmen, another rich black negro, is now traveling in this part 
of the State making speeches for his friend Lincoln as the champion 
of black men. [" What have you to say against it?"] All I have 
to say on that subject is, that those of you who believe that the negro 
is your equal and ought to be on an equality with you socially^ po- 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 319 

litically, and legally, have a right to entertain those opinions, and 
of course will vote for Mr. Lincoln. 

I have a word to say on Mr. Lincoln's answer to the interrogato- 
ries contained in my speech at Ottawa, and which he has pretended 
to reply to here to-day. Mr. Lincoln makes a great parade of the fact 
that I quoted a platform as having been adopted by the Black Repub- 
lican party at Springfield in 1854, which, it turns out, was adopted 
at another place. Mr. Lincoln loses sight of the thing itself in his ec- 
stasies over the mistake I made in stating the place where it was done. 
He thinks that that platform was not adopted on the right " spot." 

When I put the direct questions to Mr. Lincoln to ascertain 
whether he now stands pledged to that creed — to the unconditional 
repeal of the fugitive-slave law, a refusal to admit any more slave 
States into the Union even if the people want them, a determination 
to apply the Wilmot proviso, not only to all the teri'itory we now have, 
but all that we may hereafter acquire — he refused to answer, and his 
followers say, in excuse, that the resolutions upon which I based my 
interrogatories were not adopted at the right *^ spot." Lincoln and 
his political friends are great on " spots." In Congress, as a repre- 
sentative of this State, he declared the Mexican war to be unj ust and 
infamous, and would not support it, or acknowledge his own country 
to be right in the contest, because he said that American blood was 
not shed on American soil in the right " spot." And now he cannot 
answer the questions I put to him at Ottawa because the resolutions 
I read were not adopted at the right " spot." It may be possible that 
I was led into an error as to the spot on which the resolutions I then 
read were proclaimed, but I was not, and am not in error as to the 
fact of their forming the basis of the creed of the Republican party 
when that party was first organized. I will state to you the evidence 
I had, and upon which I relied for my statement that the resolutions 
in question were adopted at Springfield on the 5th of October, 1854. 
Although I was aware that such resolutions had been passed in this 
district, and nearly all the northern congressional districts and 
county conventions, I had not noticed whether or not they had been 
adopted by any State convention. In 1856 a debate arose in Con- 
gress between Major Thomas L. Harris, of the Springfield district, 
and Mr. Norton, of the Joliet district, on political matters connected 
with our State, in the course of which Major Harris quoted those 
resolutions as having been passed by the first Republican State con- 
vention that ever assembled in Illinois. I knew that Major Harris 
was remarkable for his accuracy, that he was a veiy conscientious 
and sincere man, and I also noticed that Norton did not question the 
accuracy of this statement. I therefore took it for granted that it 
was so, and the other day when I concluded to use the resolutions at 
Ottawa, I wrote to Charles H. Lanphier, editor of the ** State Regis- 
ter," at Springfield, calling his attention to them, telling him that I 
had been informed that Major Harris was lying sick at Springfield, 
and desiring him to call upon him and ascertain all the facts con- 
cerning the resolutions, the time and the place where they were 
adopted. In reply Mr. Lanphier sent me two copies of his paper, 
which I have here. The fii-st is a copy of the " State Register,'* pub- 



320 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

lished at Springfield, Mr. Liucolu's own town, on the 16tli of October, 
1854, only eleven days after the adjournment of the convention, from 
which I desire to read the following: 

Dm-ing the late discussions in this city, Lincoln made a speech, to which 
Judge Douglas replied. In Liucoln's speech he took the broad ground that, 
according to the Declaration of Independence, the whites and blacks are 
equal. From this he drew the conclusion, which he several times repeated, 
that the white man had no right to pass laws for the government of the 
black man without the nigger's consent. This speech of Lincoln's was 
heard and applauded by all the Abolitionists assembled in Springfield. So 
soon as Mr. Lincoln was done speaking, Mr. Codding arose and requested 
all the delegates to the Black Republican convention to withdraw into the 
Senate chamber. They did so, and after long deliberation, they laid down 
the following Abohtion platform as the platform on which they stood. We 
call the particular attention of om- readers to it. 

Then follows the identical platform, word for word, which I read 
at Ottawa. Now, that was published in Mr. Lincoln's own town, 
eleven days after the convention was held, and it has remained on 
record up to this day never contradicted. 

When I quoted the resolutions at Ottawa and questioned Mr. Lin- 
coln in relation to them, he said that his name was on the committee 
that reported them, but he did not serve, nor did he think he served, 
because he was, or thought he was, in Tazewell County at the time 
the convention was in session. He did not deny that the resolutions 
were passed by the Springfield convention. He did not know better, 
and evidently thought that they were, but afterward his friends 
declared that they had discovered that they varied in some respects 
from the resolutions passed by that convention. 1 have shown you 
that I had good evidence for believing that the resolutions had been 
passed at Springfield. Mr. Lincoln ought to have known better ; 
but not a word is said about his ignorance on the subject, whilst I, 
notwithstanding the circumstances, am accused of forgery. 

Now, I will show you that if I have made a mistake as to the place 
where these resolutions were adopted — and when I get down to 
Springfield I will investigate the matter and see whether or not I 
have — the principles they enunciate were adopted as the Black 
Republican platform [*' White, white "], in the various counties ar.d 
congressional districts throughout the north end of the State in 
1854. This platform was adopted in nearly every county that gave 
a Black Republican majority for the legislature in that year, and 
here is a man [pointing to Mr. Denio, who sat on the stand near 
Deacon Bross] who knows as well as any li\'iug man that it was the 
creed of the Black Republican party at that time. I would be willing 
to call Denio as a witness, or any other honest man belonging to that 
party. I will now read the resolutions adopted at the Rockford con- 
vention on the 30th of August, 1854, which nominated Washburne 
for Congress. You elected him on the following platform : 

Besolved, That the continued and increasing aggressions of slavery in om* 
country are destructive of the best rights of a free people, and that such 
aggressions cannot be successfully resisted without the united political 
action of aU good men. 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 321 

Resolved, That the citizens of the United States hold in their hands peace- 
ful, constitutional; and eiiicieut remedy against the encroachments of the 
slave power, the ballot-box ; and if that remedy is boldly and wisely ap- 
phed, the principles of liberty and eternal justice will be established. 

Resolved, That we accept this issue forced upon us by the slave power, 
and, in defense of freedom, will cooperate and be known as liei)ubUcans, 
pledged to the accomphshment of the following pui-poses : 

To bring the administration of the government back to the control of 
fii'st principles ; to restore Kansas and Nebraska to the position of free Ter- 
ritories ; to repeal and entirel}' abrogate the fugitive-slave law ; to restrict 
slavery to those States in which it exists ; to prohibit the admission of any 
more slave States into the Union ; to exclude slavery from all the Tenito- 
ries over which the General Government has exclusive jurisdiction, and to 
resist the acquisition of any more Territories unless the introduction of 
slavery therein forever shall have been prohibited. 

Resolved, That in furtherance of these principles we will use such consti- 
tutional and lawful means as shall seem best adapted to their accomplish- 
ment, and that we will support no man for office under the General or State 
Government who is not positively committed to the support of these prin- 
ciples, and whose personal character and conduct is not a p xranty that he 
is reliable and shall abjiu-e all party allegiance and ties. 

Resolved, That we cordially in\dte persons of all former pohtical parties 
whatever in favor of the object expressed in the above resolutions to unite 
with us in canying them into effect. 

Well, you think that is a very good platform, do you not ? If you 
do, if you approve it now, and think it is all right, you will not join 
with those men who say that I libel you by calling these your prin- 
ciples, will you ? Now, Mr. Lincoln complains ; Mr. Lincoln charges 
that I did you and him injustice by saying that this was the plat- 
form of your party. I am told that Washburne made a speech in 
Galena last night, in which he abused me awfully for bringing to 
light this platform, on which he was elected to Congress. He 
thought that you had forgotten it, as he and Mr. Lincoln desire to. 
He did not deny but that you had adopted it, and that he had sub- 
scribed to and was pledged by it, but he did not think it was fair to 
call it up and remind the people that it was their platform. 

But I am glad to find that you are more honest in your Abolition- 
ism than your leaders, by avowing that it is your platform, and 
right in your opinion. 

In the adoption of that platform, you not only declared that you 
would resist the admission of any more slave States, and work for 
the repeal of the fugitive-slave law, but you pledged yourself not 
to vote for any man for State or Federal offices who was not com- 
mitted to these principles. You were thus committed. Similar res- 
olutions to those were adopted in your county convention here; 
and now with your admissions that they are your platform and em- 
body your sentiments now as they did then, what do you think of 
Mr. Lincoln, your candidate for the United States Senate, who is at- 
tempting to dodge the responsibility of this platform, because it was 
not adopted in the right spot? I thought that it was adopted in 
Springfield, but it turns out it was not, that it was adopted at Rock- 
ford, and in the various counties which comprise this congressional 
district. When I get into the next district, I will show that the 
Vol. I.— 21. 



322 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

same platform was adopted there, and so on through the State, until 
I nail the responsibility of it upon the back of the Black Republican 
party throughout the State. [A voice : " Could n't you modify and 
call it brown ?"] Not a bit. I thought that you were becoming a 
little brown when your members in Congress voted for the Critten- 
den-Montgomery bill, but since you have backed out from that po- 
sition, and gone oack to Abolitionism, you are black and not brown. 
Gentlemen, I have shown you what your platform was in 1854. 
YoM still adhere to it. The same platform was adopted by nearly 
all the counties where the Black Republican party had a majority 
in 1854. I wish now to call your attention to the action of your 
representatives in the legislature when they assembled together at 
Springfield. In the first place you must remember that this was the 
organization of a new party. It is so declared in the resolutions 
themselves, which say that you are going to dissolve all old party 
ties and call the new party Republican. The Old Whig party was to 
have its throat cut from ear to ear, and the Democratic party was to 
be annihilated and blotted out of existence, whilst in lieu of these 
parties the Black Republican party was to be organized on this Abo- 
lition platform. You know who the chief leaders were in breaking 
up and destroying these two great parties. Lincoln on the one hand 
and Trumbull on the other, being disappointed politicians, and having 
retired or been driven to obscurity by an outraged constituency be- 
cause of their political sins, formed a scheme to Abolitionize the two 
parties, and lead the old-line Whigs and old-line Democrats captive, 
t)ound hand and foot, into the Abolition camp. Giddings, Chase, 
Fred Douglass, and Lovejoy were here to christen them whenever 
they were brought in. Lincoln went to work to dissolve the old-line 
Whig party. Clay was dead, and although the sod was not yet green 
on his grave, this man undertook to bring into disrepute those great 
compromise measures of 1850, with which Clay and Webster were 
identified. Up to 1854 the Old Whig party and the Democratic party 
had stood on a common platform so far as this slavery question was 
concerned. You Whigs and we Democrats differed about the bank, 
the tariff, distribution, the specie cii'cular, and the subtreasiiry, but 
we agreed on this slavery question and the true mode of preserving 
the peace and harmony of the Union. The compromise measures of 
1850 were introduced by Clay, were defended by Webster, and sup- 
ported by Cass, and were approved by Fillmore, and sanctioned by the 
national men of both parties. They constituted a common plank 
upon which both Whigs and Democrats stood. In 1852 the Whig 
party, in its last national convention at Baltimore, indorsed and ap- 
proved these measures of Clay, and so did the national convention 
of the Democratic party held that same year. Thus the old-line 
Whigs and the old-line Democrats stood pledged to the great prin- 
ciple of self-government, which guarantees to the people of each 
Territory the right to decide the slavery question for themselves. In 
1854, after the death of Clay and Webster, Mr. Lincoln, on the part 
of the Whigs, undertook to Abolitionize the Whig party by dissolving 
it, transferring the members into the Abolition camp and making 
them train under Giddings, Fred Douglass, Lovejoy, Chase, Farns- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 323 

worth, and other Abolition leaders. Trumbull undertook to dissolve 
the Democratic party by taking old Democrats into the Abolition 
camp. Mr. Lincoln was aided in his efforts by many leading Whigs 
throughout the State — your member of Congress, Mr. Washburne, 
being one of the most active. Trumbull was aided by many rene- 
gades from the Democratic party, among whom were John Went- 
worth, Tom Turner, and others with whom you are familiar. 

Mr. Turner, who was one of the moderators, here interposed, and 
said that he had di*awn the resolutions which Senator Douglas had 
read. 

Mr. Douglas : Yes, and Turner says that he drew these resolutions. 
[" Hurrah for Turner ! " '' Hurrah for Douglas ! "] That is right ; 
give Turner cheers for di-awing the resolutions, if you approve them. 
If he drew those resolutions, he will not deny that they are the creed 
of the Black Republican party. 

Mr. Turner : They are om* creed exactly. 

Mr. Douglas: And yet Lincoln denies that he stands on them. 
Mr. Turner says that the creed of the Black Republican party is the 
admission of no more slave States, and yet Mr. Lincoln declares that 
he would not like to be placed in a position where he would have to 
vote for them. All I have to say to friend Lincoln is, that I do not 
think there is much danger of his being placed in such a position. 
As Mr. Lincoln would be very sorry to be i)laced in such an embar- 
rassing position as to be obliged to vote on the admission of any 
more slave States, I propose, out of mere kindness, to relieve him 
from any such necessity. When the bargain between Lincoln and 
Trumbull was completed for Abolitionizing the Whig and Demo- 
cratic parties, they '^ spread" over the State, Lincoln still pretending 
to be an old-line Whig,dn order to " rope in " the Whigs, and Trum- 
bull pretending to be as good a Democrat as he ever was, in order 
to coax the Democrats over into the Abolition ranks. They played 
the part that "decoy ducks" play down on the Potomac River. In 
that part of the country they make artificial ducks, and put them on 
the water in places where the wild ducks are to be found, for the 
purpose of decoying them. Well, Lincoln and Trumbull played the 
part of these "■ decoy ducks," and deceived enough old-line Whigs 
and old-line Democrats to elect a Black Republican legislature. 
When that legislature met, the first thing it did was to elect as 
Speaker of the House the very man who is now boasting that he wrote 
the Abolition platform on which Lincoln will not stand. I want to 
know of Mr. Turner whether or not, when he was elected, he was a 
good embodiment of Republican principles ! 

Mr. Turner : I hope I was then and am now. 

Mr. Douglas : He swears that he hopes he was then and is now. 
He wrote that Black Republican platform, and is satisfied with it 
now. I admire and acknowledge Turner's honesty. Ever}^ man of 
you knows what he says about these resolutions being the platform 
of the Black Republican party is true, and you also know that each 
one of these men who are shuffling and trjdng to deny it is only 
trying to cheat the people out of their votes for the purpose of deceiv- 
ing them still more after the election. I propose to trace this thing 



324 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

a little further, in order that you can see what additional evidence 
there is to fasten this revolutionary platfoi-m upon the Black Re- 
publican party. When the legislature assembled, there was a United 
States senator to elect in the place of General Shields, and before 
they proceeded to ballot, Lovejoy insisted on laying down certain 
principles by which to govern the party. It has been published to 
the world and satisfactorily proven that there was, at the time the al- 
liance was made between Trumbull and Lincoln to Abolitionize the 
two parties, an agreement that Lincoln should take Shields's place in 
the IJnited States Senate, and Trumbull should have mine so soon 
as they could conveniently get rid of me. When Lincoln was beaten 
for Shields's place, in a manner I will refer to in a few minutes, he 
felt very sore and restive ; his friends grumbled, and some of them 
came out and charged that the most infamous treachery had been 
practised against him ; that the bargain was that Lincoln was to have 
had Shields's place, and Trumbull was to have waited for mine, but 
that Trumbull, having the control of a few Abolitionized Democrats, 
prevented them from voting for Lincoln, thus keeping him within 
a few votes of an election until he succeeded in forcing the party to 
drop him and elect Trumbull. Well, Trumbull having cheated Lin- 
coln, his friends made a fuss, and in order to keep them and Lincoln 
quiet, the party were obliged to come forward, in advance, at the last 
State election, and make a j)ledge that they would go for Lincoln and 
nobody else. Lincoln could not be silenced in any other way. 

Now, there are a great many Black Republicans of you who do not 
know this thing was done. ['' White, white," and great clamor.] I 
wish to remind j^ou that while Mr. Lincoln was speaking there was 
not a Democrat vulgar and blackguard enough to interrupt him. 
But I know that the shoe is pinching you. I am clinching Lincoln 
now, and you are scared to death for the result. I have seen this 
thing before. I have seen men make appointments for joint dis- 
cussions, and, the moment their man has been heard, try to inter- 
rupt and prevent a fair hearing of the other side. I have seen your 
mobs before, and defy your wrath. [Tremendous applause.] My 
friends, do not cheer, for I need my whole time. The object of the 
opposition is to occupy my attention in order to prevent me from 
giving the whole evidence and nailing this double-dealing on the 
Black Republican party. As I have before said, Lovejoy demanded 
a declaration of principles on the part of the Black Republicans of 
the legislature before going into an election for United States sen- 
ator. He offered the following preamble and resolutions which I 
hold in my hand : 

Whereas, Human slavery is a violation of the px'inciples of uatui'al and 
revealed rigbts; and whereas, the fathers of the Revolution, fully imbued 
with the spirit of these principles, declared freedom to be the inalienable 
birthright of all men ; and whereas, the preamble to the Constitution of 
the United States avers that that instrument was ordained to establish 
justice and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity ; 
and whereas, in furtherance of the above principles, slavery was forever 
prohibited in the old Northwest Territory, and more recently in all that 
territory lying west and north of the State of Missouri by the act of the 
Federal Government ; and whereas, the repeal of the prohibition last re- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 325 

ferred to was eonti-ary to the wishes of the people of Illinois, a violation 
of an implied compact, long deemed sacred by the citizens of the United 
States, and a wide departure from the uniform action of the General Gov- 
ernment in relation to the extension of slavery ; tliei-efoi-e, 

Mesolved, by the House of Representatices, the Senate concurring therein, That 
GUI' senators in Congress be instructed, and our representatives requested 
to introduce, if not otherwise introduced, and to vote for a bill to restore 
such prohibition to the aforesaid Tei'ritories, and also to extend a similar 
prohibition to all territory which now belongs to the United States, or 
which may hei'eafter come under their jurisdiction. 

Resolved, That our senators in Congi-ess be instructed, and our repre- 
sentatives reqtiested, to vote against the admission of any State into the 
Union, the constitution of which does not prohibit slavery, whether the 
territory otit of which such State may have been formed shall have been 
acquired by conquest, treaty, purchase, or from original territory of the 
United States. 

Resolved, That onr senators in Congress be instructed, and otir repi'e- 
sentatives requested, to introduce and vote for a bill to repeal an act en- 
titled "An act respecting fugitives from justice and persons escaping from 
the ser\aces of their masters" ; and, fadiug in that, for such a modification 
of it as shall secure the right of habeas corpus and trial by juiy before the 
regtdarly constituted authorities of the State, to all persons claimed as 
owing service or labor. 

Those resolutions were introduced by Mr. Lovejoy immediately 
preceding the election of senator. They declared first, that the 
Wilmot proviso must be applied to all territory north of 36° 30' ; sec- 
ondly, that it must be applied to all territory south of 36° 30' ; thirdly, 
that it must be applied to all the territory now owned by the 
United States ; and finally, that it must be applied to all territory 
hereafter to be acquired by the United States. The next resolu- 
tion declares that no more slave States shall be admitted into 
this Union under any circumstances whatever, no matter whether 
they are formed out of territory now owned by us or that we may 
hereafter acquire, by treaty, by Congress, or in any manner what- 
ever. The next resolution demands the unconditional repeal of 
the fugitive-slave law, although its unconditional repeal would leave 
no provision for carrying out that clatise of the Constitution of the 
United States which guarantees the surrender of fugitives. If they 
could not get an unconditional repeal, they demanded that that law 
should be so modified as to make it as nearly useless as possible. 
Now, I want to show you who voted for these resolutions. When 
the vote was taken on the first resolution, it was decided in the aflQr- 
mative — yeas 41, nays 32. You will find that this is a strict party 
vote, between the Democrats on the one hand, and the Black Repub- 
licans on the other. [Cries of " White, white," and clamor.] I know 
your name, and always call things by their right name. The point I 
wish to call vour attention to is this : that these resolutions were 
adopted on the 7th day of February, and that on the 8th they went 
into an election for a United States senator, and that day every man 
who voted for these resolutions, with but two exceptions, voted for 
Lincoln for the United States Senate. ['' Give us their names."] I 
will read the names over to you if you want them, but I believe your 
object is to occupy my time. 



326 ADDEESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

On the next resolution the vote stood, yeas 33, nays 40; and on 
the third resolution, yeas 35, nays 47. I wish to impress upon you 
that every man who voted for those resolutions, with but two excep- 
tions, voted on the next day for Lincoln for United States senator. 
Bear in mind that the members who thus voted for Lincoln were 
elected to the legislature pledged to vote for no man for office under 
the State or Federal Government who was not committed to this 
Black Republican platform. They were all so pledged. Mr. Turner, 
who stands by me, and who then represented you, and who says that 
he wrote those resolutions, voted for Lincoln, when he was pledged 
not to do so unless Lincoln was in favor of those resolutions. I now 
ask Mr. Turner [turning to Mr. Turner], did you violate your pledge 
in voting for Mr. Lincoln, or did he commit himself to your plat- 
form before you cast your vote for him ? 

I could go through the whole list of names here and show you that 
all the Black Republicans in the legislature, who voted for Mr. Lin- 
coln, had voted on the day previous for these resolutions. For in- 
stance, here are the names of Sargent and Little, of Jo Daviess and 
Carroll ; Thomas J. Turner, of Stephenson: Lawrence, of Boone and 
McHenry; Swan, of Lake; Pinckney, of Ogle County; and Lyman, of 
Winnebago. Thus you see every member from your congressional 
district voted for Mr. Lincoln, and they were pledged not to vote for 
him unless he was committed to the doctrine of no more slave States, 
the prohibition of slavery in the Territories, and the repeal of the 
fugitive-slave law. Mr. Lincoln tells you to-day that he is not 
pledged to any such doctrine. Either Mr. Lincoln was then com- 
mitted to those propositions, or Mr. Turner violated his pledges to 
you when he voted for him. Either Lincoln was pledged to each one 
of those propositions, or else eveiy Black Republican representative 
from this congressional district violated his pledge of honor to his 
constituents by voting for him. I ask you which horn of the di- 
lemma will you take? Will you hold Lincoln up to the platform of 
his party, or will you accuse every representative you had in the leg- 
islature of violating his pledge of honor to his constituents ? There 
is no escape for you. Either Mr. Lincoln was committed to those 
propositions, or your members violated their faith. Take either 
horn of the dilemma you choose. There is no dodging the question; 
I want Lincoln's answer. He says he was not pledged to repeal the 
fugitive-slave law, that he does not quite like to do it ; he will not 
introduce a law to repeal it, but thinks there ought to be some law; 
he does not tell what it ought to be ; upon the whole, he is altogether 
undecided, and don't know what to think or do. That is the sub- 
stance of his answer upon the repeal of the fugitive-slave law. I 
put the question to him distinctly, whether he indorsed that part of 
the Black Republican platform which calls for the entire abroga- 
tion and repeal of the fugitive-slave law. He answers, no! — that 
he does not indorse that; but he does not tell what he is for, or 
what he will vote for. His answer is, in fact, no answer at all. Why 
cannot he speak out and say what he is for and what he will do ? 

In regard to there being no more slave States, he is not pledged to 
that. He would not like, he says, to be put in a position where he 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 327 

would have to vote one way or another upon that question. I pray- 
yon, do not put him in a position that would embarrass him so much. 
Gentlemen, if he goes to the Senate he may be put in that position. 
and then which way will he vote? [A voice : '^ How will you vote?"] 
I will vote for the admission of just such a State as b}'' the form of 
their constitution the people show they want. If they want slavery, 
they shall have it; if they prohibit slavery, it shall be prohibited. 
They can form their institutions to please themselves, subject only to 
the Constitution ; and I for one stand ready to receive them into the 
Union. Why cannot your Black Republican candidates talk out as 
plain as that when they are questioned ? 

I do not want to cheat any man out of his vote. No man is 
deceived in regard to my principles if I have the power to express 
myself in terms explicit enough to convey my ideas. 

Mr. Lincoln made a speech when he was nominated for the United 
State Senate which covers all these Abolition platforms. He there 
lays down a proposition so broad in its Abolitionism as to cover the 
whole ground. 

In my opinion it [the slavery agitation] wUl not cease until a crisis shall 
have been reached and passed. " A house divided against itself cannot 
stand." I believe this government cannot endm-e permanently half slave 
and half free. I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will 
cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either 
the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it 
where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ulti- 
mate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward till it shaU become 
alike lawful in all the States — old as weU as new, North as well as South. 

There you find that Mr. Lincoln lays down the doctrine that this 
Union cannot endure divided as our fathers made it, with free and 
slave States. He says they must all become one thing or all the other; 
that they must all be free or all slave, or else the Union cannot 
continue to exist. It bein^ his opinion that to admit any more slave 
States, to continue to divide the Union into free and slave States, 
will dissolve it, I want to know of Mr. Lincoln whether he will vote 
for the admission of another slave State. 

He tells you the Union cannot exist unless the States are all free 
or all slave ; he tells you that he is opposed to making them aU slave, 
and hence he is for making them all free, in order that the Union 
may exist ; and yet he will not say that he will not vote against 
another slave State, knowing that the Union must be dissolved if he 
votes for it. I ask you if that is fair dealing ? The true intent and 
inevitable conclusion to be drawn from his first Springfield speech 
is, that he is opposed to the admission of any more slave States 
under any circumstances. If he is so opposed, why not say so ? If he 
believes this Union cannot endure divided into free and slave States, 
that they must all become free in order to save the Union, he is 
bound as an honest man, to vote against any more slave States. If 
he believes it he is bound to do it. Show me that it is ray duty in 
order to save the Union to do a particular act, and I wiU do it if the 
Constitution does not prohibit it. I am not for the dissolution of 
the Union under any circumstances. I will pursue no course of con- 



328 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

duct that will give just cause for the dissolution of the Union. The 
hope of the friends of freedom throughout the world rests upon the 
perpetuity of this Union. The downtrodden and oppressed people 
who are suffering under European despotism all look with hope and 
anxiety to the American Union as the only resting-place and perma- 
nent home of freedom and self-government. 

Mr. Lincoln says that he believes that this Union cannot continue 
to endure with slave States in it, and yet he will not tell you dis- 
tinctly whether he will vote for or against the admission of any 
more slave States, but says he would not like to be put to the test. 
I do not think he will be put to the test. I do not think that the 
people of Illinois desire a man to represent them who would not like 
to be put to the test on the performance of a high constitutional 
duty. I will retire in shame from the Senate of the United States 
when I am not willing to be put to the test in the performance of my 
duty. I have been put to severe tests. I have stood by my princi- 
ples in fair weather and in foul, in the sunshine and in the rain. I 
have defended the great principles of self-government here among 
5^ou when Northern sentiment ran in a torrent against me, and I 
have defended that same great principle when Southern sentiment 
came down like an avalanche upon me. I was not afraid of any test 
they put to me. I knew I was right — I knew my principles were 
sound — I knew that the people would see in the end that I had done 
right, and I knew that the God of Heaven would smile upon me if I 
was faithful in the performance of my duty. 

Mr. Lincoln makes a charge of coiTuption against the Supreme 
Court of the United States, and two Presidents of the United States, 
and attempts to bolster it up by saying that I did the same against 
the Washington " Union." Suppose I did make that charge of cor- 
ruption against the Washington " Union," when it was true, does 
that justify him in making a false charge against me and others? 
That is the question I would put. He says that at the time the 
Nebraska bill was introduced, and before it was passed, there was a 
conspiracy between the judges of the Supreme Court, President 
Pierce, President Buchanan, and myself by that bill, and the deci- 
sion of the court, to break down the barrier and establish slavery all 
over the UnioUo Does he not know that that charge is historicallj' 
false as against President Buchanan ? He knows that Mr. Buchanan 
was at that time in England, representing this country with distin- 
guished ability at the Court of St. James, that he was there for a 
long time before, and did not return for a year or more after. He 
knows that to be true, and that fact proves his charge to be false as 
against Mr. Buchanan. Then again, I wish to call his attention to 
the fact that at the time the Nebraska bill was passed, the Dred Scott 
case was not before the Supreme Court at all ; it was not upon the 
docket of the Supreme Court ; it had not been brought there, and 
the judges in all probability knew nothing of it. Thus the history 
of the country proves the charge to be false as against them. As 
to President JPierce, his high character as a man of integrity and 
honor is enough to vindicate him from such a charge ; and as to my- 
self, I pronounce the charge an infamous lie, whenever and wher- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 329 

ever made, and by whomsoever made. I am willing that Mr. Lincoln 
should go and rake up every public act of mine, every measure I have 
introduced, report I nave made, speech delivered, and criticize them ; 
but when he charges upon me a corrupt conspiracy for the purpose 
of perverting the institutions of the country, I brand it as it deserves. 
I say the history of the country proves it to be false, and that it could 
not have been possible at the time. But now he tries to protect him- 
self in this charge, because I made a charge against the Washington 
" Union." My speech in the Senate against the Washington " Union" 
was made because it advocated a revolutionary doctrine, by declaring 
that the free States had not the right to prohibit slavery within their 
own limits. Because I made that charge against the Washington 
"Union," Mr. Lincoln says it was a charge against Mr, Buchanan. 
Suppose it was ; is Lincoln the peculiar defender of Mr. Buchanan ? 
Is he so interested in the Federal administration, and so bound to 
it, that he must jump to the rescue and defend it from every attack 
that I may make against it ? I understand the whole thing. The 
Washington " Union," under that most corrupt of all men, Cornelius 
Wendell, is advocating Mr. Lincoln's claim to the Senate. Wendell 
was the printer of the last Black Republican House of Representatives ; 
he was a candidate before the present Democratic House, but was 
ignominiously kicked out, and then he took the money which he had 
made out of the public printing by means of the Black Republicans, 
bought the Washington " Union," and is nowpublishing it in the name 
of the Democratic party, and advocating Mr. Lincoln's election to the 
Senate. Mr. Lincoln therefore considers an attack upon Wendell 
and his corrupt gang as a personal attack upon him. This only 
proves what I have charged, that there is an alliance between Lin- 
coln and his supporters, and the Federal office-holders of this State, 
and presidential aspirants out of it, to break me down at home. 

Mr. Lincoln feels bound to come in to the rescue of the Wash- 
ington "Union." In that speech which I delivered in answer to the 
Washington " Union," I made it distinctly against the " Union " 
alone. I did not choose to go beyond that. If I have occasion to 
attack the President's conduct, I will do it in language that will not 
be misunderstood. When I differed with the President I spoke out 
so that you all heard me. That question passed away ; it resulted 
in the triumph of my principle by allowing the people to do as they 
please, and there is an end of the controversy. Whenever the great 
principle of self-government — the right of the people to make their 
own constitution, and come into the Union with slavery or without 
it, as they see proper — shall again arise, you wiU find me standing 
fi.rm in defense of that principle, and fighting whoever fights it. If 
Mr. Buchanan stands, as I doubt not he will, by the recommenda- 
tion contained in his message, that hereafter all State constitutions 
ought to be submitted to the people before the admission of the 
State into the Union, he will find me standing by him firmly, shoul- 
der to shoulder, in carrying it out. I know Mr. Lincoln's object ; 
he wants to divide the Democratic party, in order that he may de- 
feat me and go to the Senate. 

[Mr. Douglas's time here expired, and he stopped on the moment.] 



330 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



Mr. Lincoln's Rejoinder in the Freeport Joint Debate. 

My Friends : It will readily occur to you that I cannot in half an 
hour notice all the things that so able a man as Judge Douglas can 
say in an hour and a half ; and I hope, therefore, if there be any- 
thing that he has said upon which you would like to hear something 
from me, but which I omit to comment upon, you will bear in mind 
that it would be expecting an impossibility for me to go over his 
whole ground. I can but take up some of the points that he has 
dwelt upon, and employ my half hour specially on them. 

The first thing I have to say to you is a word in regard to Judge 
Douglas's declaration about the ''vulgarity and blackguardism" m 
the audience — that no such thing, as he says, was shown by any 
Democrat while I was speaking. Now I only wish, by way of reply- 
on this subject, to say that while I was speaking I used no " vul- 
garity or blackguardism " toward any Democrat. 

Now, my friends, I come to all this long portion of the judge's 
speech — perhaps half of it — which he has devoted to the various 
resolutions and platforms that have been adopted in the different 
counties, in the different congressional districts, and in the Illinois 
legislature — which he supposes are at variance with the positions 
I have assumed before you to-day. It is true that many of these 
resolutions are at variance with the positions I have here assumed. 
All I have to ask is that we talk reasonably and rationally about it. 
I happen to know, the judge's opinion to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing, that I have never tried to conceal my opinions, nor tried to 
deceive any one in reference to them. He may go and examine all 
the members who voted for me for United States senator in 1855, 
after the election of 1854. They were pledged to certain things here 
at home, and were determined to have pledges from me, and if he 
will find any of these persons who will teU him anything inconsis- 
tent with what I say now, I wiU retire from the race, and give him 
no more trouble. 

The plain truth is this. At the introduction of the Nebraska 

Eolicy, we believed there was a new era being introduced in the 
istory of the republic, which tended to the spread and perpetuation 
of slavery. But in our opposition to that measure we did not agree 
with one another in everything. The people in the north end of 
the State were for stronger measures of opposition than we of the 
central and southern portions of the State, but we were all opposed 
to the Nebraska doctrine. We had that one feeling and that one 
sentiment in common. You at the north end met in your conven- 
tions and passed your resolutions. We in the middle of the State 
and further south did not hold such conventions and pass the same 
resolutions, although we had in general a common view and a 
common sentiment. So that these meetings which the judge has 
alluded to, and the resolutions he has read from, were local, 
and di_d not spread over the whole State. We at last met together 
in 1856, from aU parts of the State, and we agreed upon a 
common platform. You who held more extreme notions, either 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 331 

yielded those notions, or if not wholly yielding them, agreed to yield 
them practically, for the sake of embodying the opposition to the 
measures whicn the opposite party were pushing forward at that 
time. We met you then, and if there was anything yielded, it was 
for practical purposes. We agreed then upon a platform for the 
party throughout the entire State of Illinois, and now we are all 
bound, as a party, to that platform. And I say here to you, if any 
one expects of me, in the case of my election, that I will do any- 
thing not signified by our Republican platform and my answers here 
to-day, I tell you very frankly that person will be deceived. I do 
not ask for the vote of any one who supposes that I have secret pur- 
poses or pledges that I dare not speak out. Cannot the judge be 
satisfied? If he fears, in the unfortunate case of my election, that 
my going to Washington will enable me to advocate sentiments 
contrary to those which I expressed when you voted for and elected 
me, I assure him that his fears are wholly needless and groundless. 
Is the judge really afraid of any such thing 1 I '11 tell you what he 
is afraid of. He is afraid we '11 all pull together. This is what 
alarms him more than anything else. For my part, I do hope that 
all of us, entertaining a common sentiment in opposition to what 
appears to us a design to nationalize and perpetuate slavery, will 
waive minor differences on questions which either belong to the dead 
past or the distant future, and all pull together in this struggle. 
What are your sentiments ? If it be true that on the ground which 
I occupy — ground which I occupy as frankly and boldly as Judge 
Douglas does his — my views, though partly coinciding with yours, 
are not as perfectly in accordance with your feelings as his are, I do 
say to you in all candor, go for him and not for me. I hope to deal 
in all things fairly with Judge Douglas, and with the people of 
the State, in this contest. And if I should never be elected to any 
ofl&ce, I trust I may go down with no stain of falsehood upon my rep- 
utation, notwithstanding the hard opinions Judge Douglas chooses 
to entertain of me. 

The judge has again addressed himself to the Abolition tendencies 
of a speech of mine, made at Springfield in June last. I have so 
often tried to answer what he is always saying on that melancholy 
theme, that I almost turn with disgust from the discussion — from 
the repetition of an answer to it. I trust that nearly all of this 
intelligent audience have read that speech. If you have, I may 
venture to leave it to you to inspect it closely, and see whether it 
contains any of those " bugaboos " which frighten Jud^e Douglas. 

The judge complains that I did not fully answer his questions. 
If I have the sense to comprehend and answer those questions, I 
have done so fairly. If it can be pointed out to me how I can more 
fully and fairly answer him, I will do it — but I aver I have not the 
sense to see how it is to be done. He says I do not declare I would 
in any event vote for the admission of a slave State into the Union. 
If I have been fairly reported, he will see that I did give an explicit 
answer to his interrogatories. I did not merely say that I would dis- 
like to be put to the test ; but I said clearly, if I were put to the test, 
and a Territory from which slavery had oeen excluded should pre- 



332 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

sent herself witli a State coustitution sanctioning slavery, — a most 
extraordinary thing- and wholly unlikely to happen, — I did not see 
how I could avoid voting for her admission. But he refuses to un- 
derstand that I said so, and he wants this audience to understand 
that I did not say so. Yet it will be so reported in the printed 
speech that he cannot help seeing it. 

He says if I should vote for the admission of a slave State I would 
be voting for a dissolution of the Union, because I hold that the 
Union cannot permanently exist half slave and half free. I repeat 
that I do not believe this government can endure permanently half 
slave and half free, yet I do not admit, nor does it at all follow, 
that the admission of a single slave State will permanently fix the 
character and establish this as a universal slave nation. The judge 
is very happy indeed at working up these quibbles. Before leaving 
the subject of answering questions, I aver as my confident belief, 
when you come to see our speeches in print, that you will find every 
question which he has asked me more fairly and boldly and fully- 
answered than he has answered those which I put to him. Is not 
that so ? The two speeches may be placed side by side ; and I will 
venture to leave it to impartial judges whether his questions have 
not been more directly and circumstantially answered than mine. 

Judge Douglas says he made a charge upon the editor of the 
Washington "■ Union," alone, of entertaining a purpose to rob the 
States of their power to exclude slavery from their limits. I under- 
take to sny, and I make the direct issue, that he did not make his 
charge against the editor of the ''Union" alone. I will undertake to 
prove by the record here that he made that charge against more and 
higher dignitaries than the editor of the Washington " Union." I 
am quite aware that he was shirking and dodging around the form 
in which he put it, but I can make it manifest that he leveled his 
"fatal blow" against more persons than this Washington editor. 
Will he dodge it now by alleging that I am trying to defend Mr. 
Buchanan against the charge? Not at all. Am I not making the 
same charge myself? I am trying to show that you, Judge Douglas, 
are a witness on my side. I am not defending Buchanan, and I will 
tell Judge Douglas that in my opinion when he made that charge he 
had an eye farther north than he was to-day. He was then fighting 
against people who called him a Black Republican and an Abolitionist. 
It is mixed all through his speech, and it is tolerably manifest that 
his eye Avas a great deal farther north than it is to-day. The judge 
says that though he made this charge, Toombs got up and declared 
there was not a man in the United States, except the editor of the 
" Union," who was in favor of the doctrines put forth in that article. 
And thereupon I understand that the judge withdrew the charge. 
Although he had taken extracts from the newspaper, and then from 
the Lecompton constitution, to show the existence of a conspiracy to 
bring about a ''fatal blow," by which the States were to be deprived of 
the right of excluding slavery, it all went to pot as soon as Toombs got 
up and told him it was not true. It reminds me of the story that John 
Phoenix, the California railroad surveyor, tells. He says they started 
out from the Plaza to the Mission of Dolores. They had two ways 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 333 

of determiniug distances. One was by a chain and pins taken over 
the ground ; the other was bj^ a *' go-it-ometer," — an invention of 
his own, — a three-legged instrument, with which he computed a 
series of triangles between the points. At night he turned to the 
chain-man to ascertain what distance they had come, and found that 
by some mistake he had merely dragged the chain over the ground 
without keeping any record. By the "go-it-ometer" he found he 
had made ten miles. Being skeptical about this, he asked a dray- 
man who was passing how far it was to the Plaza. The drayman 
replied it was just half a mile, and the surveyor put it down in his 
book — just as Judge Douglas says, after he had made his calcula- 
tions and computations, he took Toombs's statement. I have no 
doubt that after Judge Douglas had made his charge, he was as 
easily satisfied about its truth as the surveyor was of the dray- 
man's statement of the distance to the Plaza. Yet it is a fact that 
the man who put forth all that matter which Douglas deemed a 
"fatal blow" at State sovereignty, was elected by the Democrats as 
public printer. 

Now, gentlemen, you may take Judge Douglas's speech of March 
22, 1858, beginning about the middle of page 21, and reading to the 
bottom of page 24, and you will find the evidence on whieli I say 
that he did not make his charge against the editor of the " Union" 
alone. I cannot stop to read it, but I will give it to the reporters. 
Judge Douglas said : 

Mr. President, you here find several distinct propositions advanced 
boldly by the Washington " Union " editorially, and apparently authori- 
tatively, and every man who questions any of them is denounced as an 
Abohtionist, a Free-soiler, a fanatic. The propositions are : first, that the 
primaiy object of all government at its original institution is the protection 
of persons and property; second, that the Constitution of the United States 
declares that the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges 
and immunities of citizens in the several States ; and that, therefore, 
thirdly, all State laws, whether organic or otherwise, which prohibit the 
citizens of one State from settling in another with their slave property, aiid 
especially declaring it forfeited, are direct violations of the original inten- 
tion of the government and Constitution of the United States; and fonrtli, 
that the emancipation of the slaves of the Northern States was a gross out- 
rage on the rights of property, inasmuch as it was involuntarily doue on the 
part of the owner. 

Remember that this article was pubhshed in the " Union " on the 17th of 
November, and on the 18th appeared the first article giving the adhesion of 
the " Union " to the Lecompton constitution. It was in these words : 

" Kansas and her Constitution. — The vexed question is settled. The 
problem is solved. The dead point of danger is passed. All serious trouble 
to Kansas affairs is over and gone." 

And a column, nearly, of the same sort. Then, when you come to look 
into the Lecompton constitution, you find the same doctrine incorporated 
in it which was put forth editorially in the '' Union."' What is it ? 

" Article 7, Section 1. The right of property is before and higher than 
any constitutional sanction ; and the right of the owner of a slave to such 
slave and its mcrease is the same and as invariable as the right of the owner 
of any property whatever." 



334 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Then in the schedule is a provision that the constitution may be amended 
after 1864 by a two-thirds vote. 

" But no alteration shall be made to affect the right of property in the 
ownership of slaves." 

It will be seen by these clauses in the Lecomptou constitution that they 
are identical in spirit with this authoritative article in the Washington 
*' Union " of the day previous to its indorsement of this constitution. 

When I saw that article in the " Union" of the 17th of November, fol- 
lowed by the glorification of the Lecompton constitution on the 18th of 
November, and this clause in the constitution asserting the doctrine that a 
State has no right to prohibit slavery within its hmits, I saw that there was 
a fatal blow being struck at the sovereignty of the States of this Union. 

Here he says, " Mr. President, you here find several distinct 
propositions advanced boldly, and apparently authoritatively." By 
whose authority, Judge Douglas I Again, he says in another place, 
" It will be seen by these clauses in the Lecompton constitution that 
they are identical in spirit with this authoritative article." By whose 
authority ? Who do you mean to say authorized the publication of 
these articles 1 He knows that the Washington " Union " is consid- 
ered the organ of the administration. I demand of Judge Douglas 
by whose authority he meant to say those articles were published, 
if" not by the authority of the President of the United States and 
his cabinet? I defy him to show whom he referred to, if not to 
these high functionaries in the Federal Government. More than 
this, he says the articles in that paper and the provisions of the 
Lecompton constitution are " identical,'' and being identical, he argues 
that the authors are cooperating and conspiring together. He does 
not use the word " conspiring," but what other construction can you 
put upon it ? He winds up with this : 

When I saw that article in the ** Union" of the 17th of November, fol- 
lowed by the glorification of the Lecompton constitution on the IStli of 
November, and this clause in the constitution asserting the doctrine that 
a State has no right to prohibit slavery within its limits, I saw that there 
was a fatal blow being struck at the sovereignty of the States of this Union. 

I ask him if all this fuss was made over the editor of this news- 
paper. It would be a terribly "fatal blow" indeed which a single 
man could strike, when no President, no cabinet officer, no member of 
Congress, was giving strength and efficiency to the movement. Out 
of respect to Judge Douglas's good sense I must believe he did n't 
manufacture his idea of the "fatal" character of that blow out of 
such a miserable scapegrace as he represents that editor to be. But 
the judge's eye is farther south now. Then, it was very peculiarly 
and decidedly north. His hope rested on the idea of enlisting the 
great " Black Republican " party, and making it the tail of his new 
kite. He knows he was then expecting from day to day to turn Re- 
publican and place himself at the head of our organization. He has 
found that these despised " Black Republicans " estimate him by a 
standard which he has taught them only too well. Hence he is 
crawling back into his old camp, and you will find him eventually 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 335 

installed in full fellowship among those whom he was then battling, 
and with whom he now pretends to be at such fearful variance. 
[Loud applause, and cries of '* Go on, go on."] I cannot, gentlemen, 
my time has expired. 

September 15, 1858. — Third Joint Debate, at Jonesboro, 

Illinois. 

Mr. Douglas's Opening Speech. 

Ladies and Oentlemen : I appear before you to-da^ in pursuance 
of a previous notice, and have made arrangements with Mr. Lincoln 
to divide time, and discuss with him the leading political topics that 
now agitate the country. 

Prior to 1854 this country was divided into two great political 
parties known as "Whig and Democratic. These parties differed 
from each other on certain questions which were then deemed to be 
important to the best interests of the republic. Whigs and Demo- 
crats differed about a bank, the tariff, distribution, the specie circu- 
lar, and the subtreasury. On those issues we went before the country, 
and discussed the principles, objects, and measures of the two gi'eat 
parties. Each of the parties could proclaim its principles in Louisi- 
ana as well as in Massachusetts, in Kentucky as well as in Illinois. 
Since that period, a great revolution has taken place in the forma- 
tion of parties, by which they now seem to be divided by a geograph- 
ical line, a large party in the North being arrayed under the Abolition 
or Republican banner, in hostility to the Southern States, Southern 
people, and Southern institutions. It becomes important for us to 
mquu'e how this transformation of parties has occurred, made from 
those of national principles to geographical factions. You remember 
that in 1850 — this country was agitated from its center to its cir- 
cumference about this slavery question — it became necessary for 
the leaders of the great Whig party and the leaders of the great 
Democratic party to postpone for the time being their particular 
disputes, and unite first to save the Union before they should quarrel 
as to the mode in which it was to be governed. During the Congress 
of 1849-50, Henry Clay was the leader of the Union men, supported 
by Cass and Webster, and tlie leaders of the Democracy and the 
leaders of the Whigs, in opposition to Northern Abolitionists or 
Southern Disunionists. The great contest of 1850 resulted in the 
establishment of the compromise measures of that year, which 
measures rested on the great principle that the people of each State 
and each Territory of this Union ought to be permitted to regulate 
their own domestic institutions in their own way, subject to no other 
limitation than that which the Federal Constitution imposes. 

I now wish to ask you whether that principle was right or wrong 
which guaranteed to every State and every community the right to 
form and regulate their domestic institutions to suit themselves. 
These measures were adopted, as I have previously said, by the joint 
action of the Union Whigs and Union Democrats in opposition to 
Northern Abolitionists and Southern Disunionists. In 1858, when 



336 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the Whig party assembled at Baltimore in national convention for 
the last time, they adopted the principle of the compromise measm-es 
of 1850 as theii' rule of party action in the future. One month there- 
after the Democrats assembled at the same place to nominate a can- 
didate for the presidency, and. declared the same gi-eat principle as 
the rule of action by which the Democracy would be governed. The 
presidential election of 1852 was fought on that basis. It is true that 
the Whigs claimed special merit for the adoption of those measures, 
because they asserted that their great Clay originated them, their 
godlike Webster defended them, and their Fillmore signed the bill 
making them the law of the land ; but on the other hand, the Demo- 
crats claimed special credit for the Democracy upon the ground that 
we gave twice as many votes in both houses of Congress for the pas- 
sage of these measures as the Whig party. 

Thus you see that in the presidential election of 1852 the Whigs 
were pledged by their platform and their candidate to the principle 
of the compromise measures of 1850, and the Democracy were like- 
wise pledged by our principles, our platform, and our candidate to 
the same line of policy, to preserve peace and quiet between the dif- 
ferent sections of this Union. Since that period the Whig party has 
been transformed into a sectional party, under the name of the 
Republican party, whilst the Democratic party continues the same 
national party it was at that day. All sectional men, all men of Abo- 
lition sentiments and principles, no matter whether they were old 
Abolitionists or had been Whigs or Democrats, rally under the sec- 
tional Republican banner, and consequently all national men, all 
Union-loving men, whether Whigs, Democrats, or by whatever name 
they have been known, ought to rally under the Stars and Stripes in 
defense of the Constitution as our fathers made it, and of the Union 
as it has existed under the Constitution. 

How has this departure from the faith of the Democracy and the 
faith of the Whig party been accomplished? In 1854, certain rest- 
less, ambitious, and disappointed politicians throughout the land 
took advantage of the temporary excitement created by the Nebraska 
bill to try and dissolve the Old Whig party and the old Democratic 
party, to Abolitionize their members, and lead them, bound hand and 
foot, captives into the Abolition camp. In the State of New York a 
convention was held by some of these men, and a platform adopted, 
every plank of which was as black as night, each one relating to 
the negro, and not one referring to the interests of the white man. 
That example was followed throughout the Northern States, the 
effort being made to combine all the free States in hostile array 
against the slave States. The men who thus thought that they conld 
build up a great sectional party, and through its organization con- 
trol the political destinies of this country, based all their hopes on 
the single fact that the North was the stronger division of the nation, 
and hence, if the North could be combined against the South, a sure 
victory awaited their efforts. I am doing no more than justice to 
the truth of history when I say that in this State Abraham Lincoln, 
on behalf of the Whigs, and Lyman Trumbull, on behalf of the 
Democrats, were the leaders who undertook to perform this grand 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 337 

scheme of Abolitionizing the two parties to which they belonged. 
They had a private arrangement as to what should be the political 
destiny of each of the contracting parties before they went into the 
operation. The arrangement was that Mr. Lincoln was to take the 
old-line Whigs with him, claiming that he was still as good a Whig 
as ever, over to the Abolitionists, and Mr. Trumbull was to run for 
Congress in the Belleville district, and, claiming to be a good Demo- 
crat, coax the old Democrats into the Abolition camp, and when, by 
the joint efforts of the Abolitiouized Whigs, the Abolitionized Demo- 
crats, and the old-line Abolition and Free-soil party of this State, they 
should secure a majority in the legislature, Lincoln was then to be 
made United States senator in Shields's place, Trumbull remaining 
in Congress until I should be accommodating enough to die or resign, 
and give him a chance to follow Lincoln. That was a very nice httle 
bargain so far as Lincoln and Trumbull were concerned, if it had 
been carried out in good faith, and friend Lincoln had attained to 
senatorial dignity according to the contract. They went into the 
contest in every part of the State, calling upon all disappointed poli- 
ticians to join in the crusade against the Democracy, and appealed 
to the prevailing sentiments and prejudices in all the northern 
counties of the State. In three congressional districts in the north 
end of the State they adopted, as the platform of this new party thus 
formed by Lincoln and Trumbull in connection with the Abolition- 
ists, all of those principles which aimed at a warfare on the part 
of the North against the South. They declared in that platform that 
the Wilmot proviso was to be applied to all the Territories of the 
United States, North as well as South of 36° 30', and not only to 
all the territory we then had, but all that we might hereafter ac- 
quire ; that hereafter no more slave States should be admitted into 
this Union, even if the people of such States desired slavery ; that the 
fugitive-slave law should be absolutely and unconditionally repealed ; 
that slavery should be abolished in the District of Columbia; that 
the slave-trade should be abolished between the different States, and, 
in fact, every article in their creed related to this slavery question, 
and pointed to a Northern geographical party in hostility to the 
Southern States of this Union. 

Such were their principles in northern Illinois. A little further 
south they became bleached and grew paler just in proportion as 
public sentiment moderated and changed in this direction. There 
were Republicans or Abolitionists in the North, anti-Nebraska men 
down about Springfield, and in this neighborhood they contented 
themselves with talking about the inexpediency of the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise. In the extreme northern counties they 
brought out men to canvass the State whose complexion suited their 
political creed, and hence Fred Douglass, the negro, was to be found 
there, following General Cass, and attempting to speak on behalf 
of Lincoln, Trumbull, and Abolitionism, against that illustrious sen- 
ator. Why, they brought Fred Douglass to Freeport, when I was 
addressing a meeting there, in a carriage driven by the white owner, 
the negro sitting inside with the white lady and her daughter. 
When I got through canvassing the northern counties that year, 
Vol. I.— 22. 



338 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and progressed as far south as Springfield, I was met and opposed 
in discussion by Lincoln, Lovejoy, Trumbull, and Sidney Breese, 
who were on one side. Father Giddings, the high priest of Abo- 
litionism, had just been there, and Chase came about the time I left. 
[<< Why did n't you shoot him ? "] I did take a running shot at them, 
but as I was single-handed against the white, black, and mixed 
drove, I had to use a shot-gun and fire into the crowd instead of 
taking them off singly with a rifle. Trumbull had for his lieu- 
tenants in aiding him to Abolitionize the Democracy, such men as 
John Wentworth of Chicago, Governor Reynolds of Belleville, Sid- 
ney Breese of Carlisle, and John Dougherty of Union, each of whom 
modified his opinions to suit the locality he was in. Dougherty, for 
instance, would not go much further than to talk about the inex- 
pediency- of the Nebraska bill, whilst his allies at Chicago advocated 
negro citizenship and negro equality, putting the white man and the 
negro on the same basis under the law. Now these men, foui* years 
ago, were engaged in a conspiracy to break down the Democracy} 
to-day they are again acting together for the same purpose ! They do 
not hoist the same flag; they do not own the same principles, or pro- 
fess the same faith ; but conceal their union for the sake of policy. 
In the northern counties you find that all the conventions are called 
in the name of the Black Republican party ; at Springfield they dare 
not call a Republican convention, but invite all the enemies of the 
Democracy to unite, and when they get down into Egypt, Trumbull 
issues notices calling upon the " Free Democracy " to assemble and 
hear him speak. I have one of the handbills calling a Trumbull 
meeting at Waterloo the other day, which I received there, which is 
in the following language: 

A meeting of the Free Democracy will take place in Waterloo, on Mon- 
day, Sept. 13th inst., whereat Hon. Lyman Trumbull, Hon. Jehu Baker, 
and others wiU addi-ess the people upon the different political topics of 
the day. Members of aU parties are cordially invited to be present and 
hear and determine for themselves. 

The Monroe Free Democracy. 

What is that name of " Free Democrats " put forth for unless to 
deceive the people, and make them believe that Trumbull and his 
followers are not the same party as that which raises the black flag 
of Abolitionism in the northern part of this State, and makes war 
upon the Democratic party throughout the State. When I put that 
question to them at Waterloo on Saturday last, one of them rose 
and stated that they had changed their name for political effect in 
order to get votes. There was a candid admission. Their object in 
changing their party organization and principles in different locali- 
ties was avowed to be an attempt to cheat and deceive some portion 
of the people until after the election. Why cannot a political party 
that is conscious of the rectitude of its purposes and the soundness 
of its principles declare them everywhere alike f I would disdain to 
hold any political principles that I could not avow in the same terms 
in Kentucky that I declared in Illinois, in Charleston as well as in 
Chicago, in New Orleans as well as in New- York. So long as we 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 339 

live under a constitution common to all the States, our political 
faith ought to be as broad, as liberal, and just as that constitution 
itself, and should be proclaimed alike in every portion of the Union. 
But it is apparent that our opponents find it necessary, for partizan 
effect, to change their colors in different counties in order to catch 
the popular breeze, and hope with these discordant materials com- 
bined together to secure a majority in the legislature for the pur- 
pose of putting down the Democratic part3^ This combination did 
succeed in 1854 so far as to elect a majority of their confederates to 
the legislature, and the fii'st important act which they performed 
was to elect a senator in the place of the eminent and gallant Sena- 
tor Shields. His term expired in the United States Senate at that 
time, and he had to be crushed by the Abolition coalition for the 
simple reason that he would not join in their conspiracy to wage 
war against one half of the Union. That was the only objection to 
General Shields. He had served the people of the State with ability 
in the legislature, he had served you Avith fidelity and ability as 
auditor, he had pei-formed his duties to the satisfaction of the whole 
country at the head of the Land Department at Washington, he had 
covered the State and the Union with immortal glory on the bloody 
fields of Mexico in defense of the honor of our flag, and yet he had 
to be stricken down by this unholy combination. And for what 
cause ? Merely because he would not join a combination of one 
half of the States to make war upon the other half, after having 
poured out his heart's blood for all the States in the Union. Trum- 
bull was put in his place by Abolitionism. How did Trumbull get 
there ? 

Before the Abolitionists would consent to go into an election for 
United States senator, they required all the members of this new 
combination to show their hands upon this question of Abolitionism. 
Lovejoy, one of their high priests, brought in resolutions defining 
the Abolition creed, and required them to commit themselves on it 
by their votes — yesi or nay. In that creed as laid down by Lovejoy, 
they declared first, that the Wilmot proviso must be put on all the 
Territories of the United States, north as well as south of 36° 30', 
and that no more territory should ever be acquired unless slavery 
was at first prohibited therein ; second, that no more States should 
ever be received into the Union unless slaveiy was first prohibited, 
by constitutional provision, in such States ; third, that the fugitive- 
slave law must be immediately repealed, or, failing in that, then 
such amendments were to be made to it as would render it useless 
and inefficient for the objects for which it was passed, etc. The 
next day after these resolutions were offered they were voted upon, 
part of them carried, and the others defeated, the same men who 
voted for them, with only two exceptions, voting soon after for Abra- 
ham Lincoln as their candidate f orthe United States Senate. Hecame 
within one or two votes of being elected, but he could not quite get 
the number required, for the simple reason that his friend Trum- 
bull, who was a party to the bargain by which Lincoln was to take 
Shields's place, controlled a few Abolitionized Democrats in the legis- 
lature, and would not allow them all to vote for him, thus wronging 



340 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Lincoln by permitting him on each ballot to be almost elected, but 
not quite, until he forced them to drop Lincoln and elect him (Trum- 
bull), in order to unite the party. Thus you find that although the 
legislature was carried that year by the bargain between Trumbull, 
Lincoln, and the Abolitionists, and the union of these discordant ele- 
ments in one harmonious party, yet Trumbull violated his pledge, 
and played a Yankee trick on Lincoln when they came to divide the 
spoils. Perhaps you would like a little evidence on this point. If 
you would, I will call Colonel James H. Matheny of Springfield, 
to the stand, Mr. Lincoln's especial confidential friend for the last 
twenty years, and see what he will say upon the subject of this bar- 
gain. Matheny is now the Black Republican or Abolition candidate 
for Congress in the Springfield district against the gallant Colonel 
Harris, and is making speeches all over that part of the State against 
me and in favor of Lincoln, in concert with Trumbull. He ought 
to be a good witness, and I will read an extract from a speech 
which he made in 1856, when he was mad because his friend Lincoln 
had been cheated. It is one of numerous speeches of the same tenor 
that were made about that time, exposing this bargain between Lin- 
coln, Trumbull, and the Abolitionists. Matheny then said : 

The Whigs, Abolitionists, Know-nothings, and renegade Democrats made 
a solemn compact for the purj)ose of cairying this State against the De- 
mocracy, on this plan : First, that they Mould all combine and elect Mr. 
Trumbull to Congress, and thereby carry his district for the legislature, in 
order to throw all the strength that could be obtained into that body against 
the Democrats ; second, that when the legislatui*e should meet, the officers 
of that body, such as speaker, clerks, doorkeepers, etc., would be given to 
the AboUtionists ; and third, that the Whigs were to have the United States 
senator. That, accordingly, in good faith, Trumbull was elected to Con- 
gress, and his district carried for the legislature, and, when it convened, the 
Abolitionists got all tlie officers of that body, and thus far the "bond " was 
fairly executed. The Whigs, on their part, demanded the election of Abra- 
ham Lincoln to the United States Senate, that the bond might be fulfilled, 
the other parties to the contract having already secured to themselves all 
that was called for. But, in the most perfidious manner, they refused to 
elect Mr. Lincoln ; and the mean, low-lived, sneaking Trumljull succeeded, 
l)y pledging all that was reqiured by any party, in thrustiag Lincoln aside 
and foisting himself, an excrescence from the rotten bowels of the De- 
mocracy, into the United States Senate 5 and thus it has ever been, that an 
honest man makes a bad bargain when he conspires or conti-acts with 
rogues. 

Matheny thought his friend Lincoln made a bad bargain when 
he conspired and contracted with such rogues as Trumbull and his 
Abolition associates in that campaign. Lincoln was shoved off the 
track, and he and his friends all at once began to mope ; became sour 
and mad, and disposed to tell, but dare not ; and thus they stood for 
a long time, until the Abolitionists coaxed and flattered him back by 
their assurances that he should certainly be a senator in Douglas's 
place. In that way the Abolitionists have been able to hold Lincoln 
to the alliance up to this time, and now they have brought him into 
a fight against me, and he is to see if he is again to be cheated by 
them. Lincoln this time, though, required more of them than a 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 341 

promise, and holds their bond, if not security, that Lovejoy shall not 
cheat him as Trumbull did. 

When the Republican convention assembled at Springfield in June 
last, for the purpose of nominating- State officers only, the Aboli- 
tionists could not get Lincoln aud his friends into it until they would 
pledge themselves that Lincoln should be their candidate for the 
Senate ; and you will find, in proof of this, that that convention passed 
a resolution unanimously declaring that Abraham Lincoln was the 
"first, last, and only choice" of the Republicans for United States 
senator. He was not willing to have it understood that he was 
merely their first choice, or their last choice, but their only choice. 
The !6lack Republican party had nobody else. Browning was no- 
where; Governor Bissell was of no account; Archie Williams was 
not to be taken into consideration ; John Wentworth was not worth 
mentioning; John M. Palmer was degraded; and their party pre- 
sented the extraordinary' spectacle of having but one — the first, the 
last, and only choice for the Senate. Suppose that Lincoln should 
die, what a horrible condition the Repubhcan party would be in ! 
They would have nobody left. They have no other choice, and it 
was necessary for them to put themselves before the world in this 
ludicrous, ridiculous attitude of having no other choice in order to 
quiet Lincoln's suspicions, and assure him that he was not to be 
cheated by Lovejoy, and the trickery by which Trumbull out-gen- 
eraled him. Well, gentlemen, I think they will have a nice time of it 
before they get through. I do not intend to give them any chance to 
cheat Lincoln at all this time. I intend to relieve him of all anxiety 
upon that subject, and spare them the mortification of more exposures 
of contracts violated, and the pledged honor of rogues forfeited. 

But I wish to invite your attention to the chief points at issue be- 
tween Mr. Lincoln and myself in this discussion. Mr. Lincoln, know- 
ing that he was to be the candidate of his party on account of the 
arrangement of which I have already spoken, knowing that he was 
to receive the nomination of the convention for the United States 
Senate, had his speech, accepting that nomination, all written and 
committed to memory, ready to be delivered the moment the nomi- 
nation was announced. Accordingly when it was made he was in 
readiness and delivered his speech, a portion of which I will read in 
order that I may state his political principles fairly, by repeating 
them in his own language: 

We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was instituted for the 
avowed object, and with the confident promise of putting an end to slavery 
agitation ; under the operation of that pohcy, that agitation has not only 
not ceased, but has constantly augmented. I beUeve it will not cease until a 
crisis shall have been reached and passed. " A house divided against itself 
cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half 
slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not 
expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will 
become all one thing or aU the other. Either the opponents of slavery will 
airest the spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the 
belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push 
it forward until it shall become alike lawful in all the States, North as well 
as South. 



342 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

There you have Mr, Lincoln's first and main proposition, upon 
which he bases his claims, stated in his own language. He tells 
you that this republic cannot endure permanently divided into slave 
and free States, as our fathers made it. He says that they must all 
become free or all become slave, that they must all be one thing or 
all be the other, or this government cannot last. Why can it not 
last, if we will execute the government in the same spirit and 
upon the same principles upon which it is founded ? Lincoln, by his 
proposition, says to the South, " If you desire to maintain your in- 
stitutions as they are now, you must not be satisfied with minding 
yoiu* own business, but you must invade Illinois and all the other 
Northern States, establish slavery in them, and make it universal " ; 
and in the same language he says to the North, " You must not be 
content with regulating your own affairs, and minding your own 
business, but if you desire to maintain your freedom, you must in- 
vade the Southern States, abolish slavery there and everywhere, in 
order to have the States all one thing or all the other." I say that 
this is the inevitable and irresistible result of Mr. Lincoln's argu- 
ment, inviting a warfare between the North and the South, to 
be carried on with ruthless vengeance, until the one section or the 
other shall be driven to the wall, and become the victim of the ra- 
pacity of the other. What good would follow such a system of war- 
fare? Suppose the North should succeed in conquering the South, 
how much would she be the gainer ? or suppose the South should 
conquer the North, could the Union be preserved in that way ? Is 
this sectional warfare to be waged between Northern States and 
Southern States until they all shall become uniform in their local 
and domestic institutions merely because Mr. Lincoln says that a 
house divided against itself cannot stand, and pretends that this 
scriptui'al quotation, this language of our Lord and Master, is ap- 
plicable to the American Union and the American Constitution? 
Washington and his compeers, in the convention that framed the 
Constitution, made this government divided into free and slave 
States, It was composed then of thirteen sovereign and indepen- 
dent States, each having sovereign authority over its local and 
domestic institutions, and all bound together by the Federal Consti- 
tution. Mr. Lincoln likens that bond of the Federal Constitution, 
joining free and slave States together, to a house divided against 
itself, and says that it is contrary to the law of God and cannot 
stand. When did he learn, and by what authority does he proclaim, 
that this government is contrary to the law of God and cannot 
stand ? It has stood thus divided into free and slave States from 
its organization up to this day. 

During that period we have increased from four millions to thirty 
millions of people; we have extended our territory from the Missis- 
sippi to the Pacific ocean; we have acquired the Floridas and Texas, 
and other territory sufficient to double our geographical extent; we 
have increased in population, in wealth, and in power beyond any 
example on earth ; we have risen from a weak and feeble power to 
become the terror and admiration of the civilized world ; and all this 
has been done under a Constitution which Mr. Lincoln, in substance, 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 343 

says is in violation of the law of God, and under a Union divided 
into free and slave States, which Mr. Lincoln thinks, because of such 
division, cannot stand. Surely, Mr. Lincoln is a wiser man than 
those who framed the government. Washington did not believe, 
nor did his compatriots, that the local laws and domestic institutions 
that were well adapted to the Green Mountains of Vermont were 
suited to the rice plantations of South Carolina ; they did not believe 
at that day that in a republic so broad and expanded as this^ con- 
taining such a variety of climate, soil, and interest, uniformity in 
the local laws and domestic institutions was either desirable or pos- 
sible. They believed then, as our experience has proved to us now, 
that each locality, having different interests, a different chmate, and 
different surroundings, required different local laws, local policy, and 
local institutions, adapted to the wants of that locality. Thus our 
government was formed on the principle of diversity in the local in- 
stitutions and laws, and not on that of uniformity. 

As my time flies, I can only glance at these points and not present 
them as fully as I would wish, because I desire to bring all the points 
in controversy between the two parties before jou in order to have 
Mr. Lincoln's reply. He makes war on the decision of the Supreme 
Court, in the case known as the Dred Scott case. I wish to say to 
you, fellow-citizens, that I have no war to make on that decision, or 
any other ever rendered by the Supreme Court. I am content to 
take that decision as it stands delivered by the highest judicial tri- 
bunal on earth, a tribunal established by the Constitution of the 
United States for that purpose, and hence that decision becomes the 
law of the land, binding on you, on me, and on every other good citi- 
zen, whether we like it or not. Hence I do not choose to ^o into an 
argument to prove, before this audience, whether or not Chief Justice 
Taney understood the law better than Abraham Lincoln. 

Mr. Lincoln objects to that decision, first and mainly because it 
deprives the negro of the rights of citizenship. I am as much op- 

Fosed to his reason for that objection as I am to the objection itself, 
hold that a negro is not and never ought to be a citizen of the 
United States. I hold that this government was made on the white 
basis, by white men for the benefit of white men and their posterity 
forever, and should be administered by white men, and none others. 
I do not beUeve that the Almighty made the negro capable of self- 
government. I am aware that all the AboUtion lecturers that you 
find traveling about through the country, are in the habit of reading 
the Declaration of Independence to prove that all men were created 
equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, 
among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Mr. 
Lincoln is very much in the habit of following in the track of Love- 
joy in this particular, by reading that part of the Declaration of In- 
dependence to prove that the negro was endowed by the Almighty 
with the inalienable right of equality with white men. Now, I say 
to you, my fellow-citizens, that in my opinion the signers of the 
Declaration had no reference to the negro whatever, when they de- 
clared all men to be created equal. They desired to express by that 
phrase white men, men of Eui^opean birth and European descent, 



344 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and had no reference either to the negro, the savage Indians, the 
Feejee, the Malay, or any other inferior and degi*aded race, when 
they spoke of the equaUty of men. One great evidence that such 
was their understanding, is to be found in the fact that at that time 
every one of the thirteen colonies was a slaveholding colony, every 
signer of the Declaration represented a slaveholding constituency, 
and we know that no one of them emancipated his slaves, much less 
offered citizenship to them, when they signed the Declaration ; and 
yet, if they intended to declare that the negro was the equal of the 
white man, and entitled by divine right to an equality with him, 
they were bound, as honest men, that day and hour to have put 
their negroes on an equality with themselves. Instead of doing so, 
with uplifted eyes to heaven they implored the divine blessing upon 
them, during the seven years' bloody war they had to fight to main- 
tain that Declaration, never dreaming that they were violating di- 
vine law by still holding the negroes in bondage and depriving them 
of equality. 

My friends, I am in favor of preserving this government as our 
fathers made it. It does not follow by any means that because a 
negro is not your equal or mine, that hence he must necessarily be a 
slave. On the contrary, it does follow that we ought to extend to 
the negro every right, every privilege, every immunity which he is 
capable of enjoying, consistent with the good of society. When 
you ask me what these rights are, what their nature and extent is, 
I tell you that that is a question which each State of this Union must 
decide for itself. Illinois has already decided the question. We 
have decided that the negro must not be a slave within our limits ; 
but we have also decided that the negro shall not be a citizen within 
our limits ; that he shall not vote, hold office, or exercise any political 
rights. I maintain that Illinois, as a sovereign State, has a right thus 
to fix her policy with reference to the relation between the white 
man and the negro ; but while we had that right to decide the ques- 
tion for ourselves, we must recognize the same right in Kentucky 
and in every other State to make the same decision, or a different 
one. Having decided our own policy with reference to the black 
race, we must leave Kentucky and Missouri and every other State 
perfectly free to make just such a decision as they see proper on that 
question. 

Kentucky has decided that question for herself. She has said that 
within her limits a negro shall not exercise any political rights, and 
she has also said that a portion of the negroes under the laws of that 
State shall be slaves. She had as much right to adopt that as her 

})olicy as we had to adopt the contrary for our policy. New York 
las decided that in that State a negro may vote if he has two hundred 
and fifty dollars' worth of property, and if he owns that much he may 
vote upon an equality with the white man. I, for one, am utterly 
opposed to negro suffrage anywhere and under any circumstances ; 
yet, inasmuch as the Supreme Court has decided in the celebrated 
Dred Scott case that a State has a right to confer the privilege of 
voting upon free negroes, I am not going to make war upon New 
York because she has adopted a policy repugnant to my feelings. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OE ABRAHAM LINCOLN 345 

But New York miist mind her own business, and keep her negro 
suffrage to herself, and not attempt to force it upon us. 

In the State of Maine they have decided that a negro may vote and 
hold office on an equality with a white man. I had occasion to say 
to the senators from Maine, in a discussion last session, that if they 
thought that the white people within the limits of their State were 
no better than negroes, I would not quarrel with them for it, but 
they must not say that my white constituents of Illinois were no 
better than negroes, or we would be sure to quarrel. 

The Dred Scott decision covers the whole question, and declares 
that each State has the right to settle this question of suffrage for 
itself, and all questions as to the relations between the white man 
and the negro. Judge Taney expressly lays down tlie doctrine. I 
receive it as law, and I say that while those States are adopting regu- 
lations on that subject disgusting and abhorrent, according to my 
views, I will not make war on them if they will mind their own busi- 
ness and let us alone. 

I now come back to the question, why cannot this Union exist for- 
ever divided into free and slave States, as our fathers made it ? It 
can thus exist if each State will carry out the principles upon which 
our institutions were founded — to wit, the right of each State to do 
as it pleases, without meddling with its neighbors. Just act upon 
that great principle, and this Union will not only live forever, but 
it will extend and expand until it covers the whole continent, and 
makes this confederacy one grand, ocean-bound republic. We must 
bear in mind that we are yet a young nation, growing with a rapidity 
unequaled in the history of the world, that our national increase is 
great, and that the emigration from the Old World is increasing, re- 
quiring us to expand and acquire new territory from time to time, 
in order to give our people land to live upon. 

If we live up to the principle of State rights and State sovereignty, 
each State regulating its own affairs and minding its own business, 
we can go on and extend indefinitely, just as fast and as far as we 
need the territory. The time may come, indeed has now come, when 
our interests would be advanced by the acquisition of the island of 
Cuba. When we get Cuba we must take it as we find it, leaving the 
people to decide the question of slavery for themselves, without in- 
terference on the part of the Federal Government, or of any State of 
this Union. So when it becomes necessary to acquire any portion 
of Mexico or Canada, or of this continent or the adjoining islands, 
we must take them as we find them, leaving the people free to do as 
they please — to have slavery or not, as they choose. I never have 
inquired, and never will inquire, whether a new State applying for 
admission has slavery or not for one of her institutions. If the con- 
stitution that is presented be the act and deed of the people, and 
embodies their will, and they have the requisite population, I will 
admit them with slavery or without it, just as that people shall de- 
termine. My objection to the Lecompton constitution did not con- 
sist in the fact that it made Kansas a slave State. I would have 
been as much opposed to its admission under such a constitution as 
a free State as I was opposed to its admission under it as a slave 



346 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

State. I hold that that was a question which that people had a right 
to decide for themselves, and that no power on earth ought to have 
interfered with that decision. In my opinion, the Lecompton con- 
stitution was not the act and deed of the people of Kansas, and did not 
embody their will, and the recent election in that Territory, at which 
it was voted down by nearly ten to one, shows conclusively that I 
was right in saying, when the constitution was presented, that it was 
not the act and deed of the people, and did not embody their will. 

If we wish to preserve our institutions in their purity and trans- 
mit them unimpaired to oiu' latest posterity, we must preserve with 
religious good faith that great principle of seK-government which 
guarantees to each and every State, old and uew^ the right to make 
just such constitutions as they desire, and come mto the Union with 
their own constitution, and not one palmed upon them. Whenever 
you sanction the doctrine that Congress may crowd a constitution 
down the throats of an unwilling people, against their consent, you 
will subvert the great fundamental principle upon which all our free 
institutions rest. In the future I have no fear that the attempt will 
ever be made. President Buchanan declared in his annual message, 
that hereafter the rule adopted in the Minnesota case, requiring a 
constitution to be submitted to the people, should be followed in all 
future cases, and if he stands by that recommendation there will be 
no division in the Democratic party on that principle in the future. 
Hence the great mission of the Democracy is to unite the fraternal 
feeling of the whole country, restore peace and quiet by teaching 
each State to mind its own business and regulate its own domestic 
affairs, and all to unite in carrying out the Constitution as our fathers 
made it, and thus to preserve the Union and render it perpetual in 
all time to come. Why should we not act as our fathers who made 
the government? There was no sectional strife in Washington's 
army. They were all brethren of a common confederacy ; they fought 
under a common flag that they might bestow upon their posterity a 
common destiny, and to this end they poured out their blood in com- 
mon streams, and shared, in some instances, a common grave. 



3fr. LincolrCs Reply in the Joneshoro Joint Debate. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : There is very much in the principles that 
Judge Douglas has here enunciated that I most cordially approve, 
and over which I shall have no controversy with him. In so far 
as he has iusisted that all the States have the right to do exactly as 
they please about all their domestic relations, including that of 
slavery, I agree entirely with him. He places me wrong in spite of 
all I can tell him, though I repeat it again and again, insisting that 
I have made no difference with him upon this subject. I have made 
a great many speeches, some of which have been printed, and it will 
be utterly impossible for him to find anything that I have ever put 
in print contrary to what I now say upon this subject. I hold myself 
under constitutional obligations to allow the people in all the States, 
without interference, direct or indirect, to do exactly as they please, 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 347 

and I deny that I have any inclination to interfere with them, even 
if there were no such constitutional obligation. I can only say again 
that I am placed improperly — altogether improperly, in spite of all I 
can say — when it is insisted that I entertain any other view or pur- 
pose in regard to that matter. 

WhUe I am upon this subject, I will make some answers briefly to 
certain propositions that Judge Douglas has put. He says, "■ Why 
can't this Union endure permanently, half slave and half free ? " I 
have said that I supposed it could not, and I will try, before this new 
audience, to give briefly some of the reasons for entertaining that 
opinion. Another form of his question is, " Why can't we let it stand 
as our fathers placed it ? " That is the exact difficulty between us. 
I say that Judge Douglas and his friends have changed it from 
the position in which our fathers originally placed it. I say, in the 
way our fathers originally left the slavery question, the institution 
was in the course of ultimate extinction, and the public mind rested 
in the belief that it was in the course of ultimate extinction. I say 
when this government was first established, it was the policy of its 
founders to prohibit the spread of slavery into the new Territories of 
the United States, where it had not existed. But Judge Douglas and 
his friends have broken up that policy, and placed it upon a new basis 
by which it is to become national and perpetual. All I have asked or 
desired anywhere is that it should be placed back again upon the 
basis that the fathers of our government originally placed it upon. 
I have no doubt that it would become extinct, for all time to come, 
if we but readopted the policy of the fathers by restricting it to the 
limits it has already covered — restricting it from the new Territories. 

I do not wish to dwell at great length on this branch of the sub- 
ject at this time, but allow me to repeat one thing tliat I have stated 
before. Brooks, the man who assaulted Senator Sumner on the floor 
of the Senate, and who was complimented with dinners, and silver 
pitchers, and gold-headed canes, and a good many other things for 
that feat, in one of his speeches declared that when this government 
was originally established, nobody expected that the institution of 
slavery would last until this day. That was but the opinion of one 
man, but it was such an opinion as we can never get from Judge 
Douglas, or anybody in favor of slavery in the North at all. You 
can sometimes get it from a Southern man. He said at the same 
time that the framers of our government did not have the know- 
ledge that experience has taught us — that experience and the inven- 
tion of the cotton-gin have taught us that the perpetuation of slavery 
is a necessity. He insisted, therefore, upon its being changed fi*om 
the basis upon which the fathers of the government left it to the 
basis of its perpetuation and nationalization. 

I insist that this is the difference between Judge Douglas and my- 
seK — that Judge Douglas is helping that change along. I insist 
upon this government being placed where our fathers originally 
placed it. 

I remember Judge Douglas once said that he saw the evidences on 
the statute-books of Congress of a policy in the origin of govern- 
ment to divide slavery and freedom by a geographical line — that he 



348 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

saw an iudispositiou to maintain that policy, and therefore he set 
about studying up a way to settle the institution on the right basis — 
the basis which he thought it ought to have been placed upon at 
first ; and in that speech he confesses that he seeks to place it, not 
upon the basis that the fathers placed it upon, but upon one gotten 
up on " original principles." When he asks me why we cannot get 
along with it in the attitude where our fathers placed it, he had 
better clear up the evidences that he has himself changed it from 
that basis ; that he has himself been chiefly instrumental in chang- 
ing the policy of the fathers. Any one who will read his speech of 
the 22d of last March will see that he there makes an open confes- 
sion, showing that he set about fixing the institution upon an alto- 
gether different set of principles. I think I have fully answered him 
when he asks me why we cannot let it alone upon the basis where 
our fathers left it, by showing that he has himself changed the whole 
policy of the government in that regard. 

Now, fellow-citizens, in regard to this matter about a contract that 
was made between Judge Trumbull and myself, and all that long 
portion of Judge Douglas's speech on this subject, I wish simply 
to say what I have said to him before, that he cannot know whether 
it is true or not, and I do know that there is not a word of truth in it. 
And I have told him so before. I don't want any harsh language in- 
dulged in, but I do not know how to deal with this persistent insist- 
ing on a story that I know to be utterly without truth. It used to be a 
fashion amongst men that when a charge was made, some sort of 
proof was brought forward to establish it, and if no proof was found 
to exist, the charge was dropped. I don't know how to meet this 
kind of an argument. I don't want to have a fight with Judge Doug- 
las, and I have no way of making an argument up into the consis- 
tency of a corn-cob and stopping his mouth with it. All I can do is, 
good-humoredly, to say that from the beginning to the end of all 
that story about a bargain between Judge Trumbull and mj^self, 
there is not a word of truth in it. I can only ask him to show some 
sort of evidence of the truth of his story. He brings forw'ard here 
and reads from what he contends is a speech by James H. Matheny, 
charging such a bargain between Trumbull and myself. My own 
opinion is that Matheny did do some such immoral thing as to tell a 
story that he knew nothing about. I believe he did. I contradicted it 
instantly, and it has been contradicted by Judge Trumbull, while no- 
body has produced any proof, because there is none. Now, whether 
the speech which the judge brings forward here is really the one 
Matheny made, I do not know, and I hope the judge will pardon me 
for doubting the genuineness of this document, since his production 
of those Springfield resolutions at Ottawa. I do not wish to dwell 
at any great length upon this matter. I can say nothing when a long 
story like this is told, except that it is not true, and demand that he 
who insists upon it shall produce some proof. That is all any man 
can do, and I leave it in that way, for I know of no other way of deal- 
ing with it. 

The judge has gone over a long account of the Old Whig and 
Democratic parties, and it connects itself with this charge against 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 349 

Trumbull and myself. He says that tliey agreed upou a compromise 
in regard to the slavery question in 1850; that in a national Demo- 
cratic convention resolutions were passed to abide b}' that compro- 
mise as a finality upon the slavery question. He also says that the 
Whig party in national convention agi-eed to abide by and regard as 
a finality the compromise of 1850. I understand the judge to be al- 
together right about that ; I understand that part of the history of 
the country as stated by him to be correct. 1 recollect that I, as a 
member of that party, acquiesced in that compromise. I recollect in 
the presidential election which followed, when we had General Scott 
up for the presidency. Judge Douglas was around berating us Whigs 
as Abolitionists, precisely as he does to-day — not a bit of difference. 
I have often heard him. We could do nothing when the Old AVTiig 
party was alive that was not Abolitionism, but it has got an extremely 
good name since it has passed away. 

When that compromise was made, it did not repeal the old Mis- 
souri Compromise. It left a region of United States territory half 
as large as the present territory of the United States, north of the 
line of 36° 30', in which slavery was prohibited l)y act of Congress. 
This compromise did not repeal that one. It did not affect or pro- 
pose to repeal it. But at last it became Judge Douglas's duty, as 
he thought (and I find no fault with him), as chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Territories, to bring in a bill for the organization of a 
territorial government — first of one, then of two Territories north 
of that line. When he did so it ended in his inserting a provision 
substantially repealing the Missouri Compromise. That was be- 
cause the compromise of 1850 had not repealed it. And now I ask 
why he could not have left that compromise alone ? We were quiet 
from the agitation of the slavery question. We were making no 
fuss about it. All had acquiesced in the compromise measures of 
1850. We never had been seriously disturbed by any Abolition agi- 
tation before that period. When he came to form governments for 
the Territories north of the line of 36° 30', why could he not have 
let that matter stand as it was standing? Was it necessary to the 
organization of a Territory f Not at all. Iowa lay north of the line 
and had been organized as a Territor}^, and came into the Union as a 
State without disturbing that compromise. There was no sort of 
necessity for destro}4ng it to organize these Territories. But, gen- 
tlemen, it would take up all my time to meet all the little quibbling 
arguments of Judge Douglas to show that the Missouri Compromise 
was repealed by the compromise of 1850. My own opinion is that 
a careful investigation of all the arguments to sustain the position 
that that (Compromise was virtually repealed by the compromise of 
1850 would show that they are the merest fallacies. I have the re- 
port that Judge Douglas first brought into Congress at the time of 
the introduction of the Nebraska bill, which in its original form did 
not repeal the Missouri Compromise, and he there expressly stated 
that he had forborne to do so because it had not been done by the 
compromise of 1850. I close this part of the discussion on my part 
by asking him the question again, "Why, when we had peace under 
the Missouri Compromise, could you not have let it alone?" 



350 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

In complaining of what I said in my speech at Springfield, in 
v/hich he says I accepted my nomination for the senatorship (where, 
by the way, he is at fault, for if he will examine it, he wall find no 
acceptance in it), he again quotes that portion in which I said that 
" a house divided against itself cannot stand." Let me say a word 
in regard to that matter. 

He tries to persuade us that there must be a variety in the differ- 
ent institutions of the States of the Union ; that that variety neces- 
sarily proceeds from the variety of soil, climate, of the face of the 
country, and the difference in the natural features of the States. I 
agree to all that. Have these very matters ever produced any diffi- 
culty amongst us 1 Not at all. Have we ever had any quarrel over 
the fact that they have laws in Louisiana designed to regulate the 
commerce that sx^-ings from the production of sugar? or because 
we have a different class relative to the production of flour in this 
State? Have they produced any differences? Not at all. They 
are the very cements of this Union. They don't make the house a 
house divided against itself. They are the props that hold up the 
house and sustain the Union. 

But has it been so-with this element of slavery ? Have we not al- 
ways had quarrels and difftculties over it ? And when will we cease 
to have quarrels over it ? Like causes produce like effects. It is 
worth while to observe that we have generally had comparative 
peace upon the slavery question, and that there has been no cause 
for alarm until it was excited by the effort to spread it into new ter- 
ritory. Whenever it has been limited to its present bounds, and 
there has been no effort to spread it, there has been peace. All the 
trouble and convulsion has proceeded from efforts to spread it over 
more territory. It was thus at the date of the Missouri Compro- 
mise. It was so again with the annexation of Texas; so with the 
territory acquired by the Mexican war ; and it is so now. Whenever 
there has been an effort to spread it there has been agitation and 
resistance. Now, I appeal to this audience (very few of whom are 
my political friends), as national men, whether we have reason to 
expect that the agitation in regard to this subject will cease while 
the causes that tend to reproduce agitation are actively at work ? 
Will not the same cause that produced agitation in 1820, when the 
Missouri Compromise was formed, — that which produced the agita- 
tion upon the annexation of Texas, and at other times, — work out 
the same results always? Do you think that the nature of man will 
be changed — that the same causes that produced agitation at one 
time will not have the same effect at another ? 

This has been the result so far as my observation of the slavery 
question and my reading in history extend. What right have we 
then to hope that the trouble will cease, that the agitation will 
come to an end ; until it shall either be placed back where it origi- 
nally stood, and where the fathers originally placed it, or, on the other 
hand, until it shall entirely master all opposition ? This is the view 
I entertain, and this is the reason why I entertained it, as Judge 
Douglas has read from my Springfield speech. 
Now, my friends, there' is one other thing that I feel under some 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 351 

sort of obligation to mention. Judge Douglas has here to-day — in 
a very rambling way, I was about saying — spoken of the platforms 
for which he seeks to hold me responsible. He says, '* Why can't 
yon come out and make an open avowal of principles in all places 
alike ? " and he reads from an advertisement that he says was used 
to notify the people of a speech to be made by Judge Trumbull at 
Waterloo. In commenting on it he desires to know whether we 
cannot speak frankly and manfully as he and his friends do ! How, 
I ask, do his friends speak out their own sentiments ? A conven- 
tion of his party in this State met on the 21st of April, at Springfield, 
and passed a set of resolutions which they proclaim to the country 
as their platform. This does constitute their platform, and it is 
because Judge Douglas claims it is his platform — that these are his 
principles and purposes — that he has a right to declare that he 
speaks his sentiments ''frankly and manfully." On the 9th of June, 
Colonel John Dougherty, Governor Reynolds, and others, calling 
themselves National Democrats, met in Springfield, and adopted a set 
of resolutions which are as easily understood, as plain and as definite 
in stating to the country and to the world what they believed in 
and would stand upon, as Judge Douglas's platform. Now, what is 
the reason that Judge Douglas is not willing that Colonel Dougherty 
and Governor Reynolds should stand upon their own written and 
printed platform as well as he upon his? Why must he look farther 
than their platform when he claims himself to stand by his platform ? 

Again, in reference to our platform : On the 16th of June the Re- 
publicans had their convention and published their platform, which 
is as clear and distinct as Judge Douglas's. In it they spoke their 
principles as plainly and as definitely to the world. What is the 
reason that Judge Douglas is not willing that I should stand upon 
that platform ? Why must he go around hunting for some one who 
is supporting me, or has supported me at some time in his life, and 
who has said something at some time contrary to that platform ? 
Does the judge regard that rule as a good one? If it turn out that 
the rule is a good one for me, — that I am responsible for any and 
every opinion that any man has expressed who is my friend, — then 
it is a good rule for him. I ask, is it not as good a rule for him as 
it is for me ? In my opinion, it is not a good rule for either of us. 
Do you think diiferently, judge! 

Mr. Douglas: I do not. 

Mr. Lincoln : Judge Douglas says he does not think differently. 
I am glad of it. Then can he tell me why he is looking up resolu- 
tions of five or six years ago, and insisting that they were my plat- 
form, notwithstanding my protest that they are not, and never 
were, my platform, and my pointing out the platform of the State 
convention which he delights to say nominated me for the Senate? 
I cannot see what he means by parading these resolutions, if it is 
not to hold me responsible for them in some way. If he says to 
me here, that he does not hold the rule to be good, one way or the 
other, I do not comprehend how he could answer me more fully if 
he answered me at greater length. I will therefore put in as my 
answer to the resolutions that he has hunted up against me what I, 



352 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

a& a lawyer, would call a good plea to a bad declaration. I under- 
stand that it is a maxim of law, that a poor plea may be a good plea 
to a bad declaration. I think that the opinions the judge brings 
from those who support me, yet differ from me, are a bad declaration 
against me, but if I can bring the same things against him, I am 
putting in a good plea to that kind of declaration, and now I pro- 
pose to try it. 

At Freeport Judge Douglas occupied a large part of his time in 
producing resolutions and documents of various sorts, as I under- 
stood, to make me somehow responsible for them ; and I propose 
now doing a little of the same sort of thing for him. In 1850 a very 
clever gentleman by the name of Thompson Campbell, a personal 
friend of Judge Douglas and myself, a political friend of Judge Doug- 
las and opponent of mine, was a candidate for Congi*ess in the Galena 
district. He was interrogated as to his views on this same slavery 
question. I have here before me the interrogatories, and Campbell's 
answers to them. I will read them: 

Interrogatories. 

1. Will you, if elected, vote for and cordially support a bUl prohibiting 
slavery in the Territories of the United States ? 

2. Will you vote for and support a bill abolishing slavery in the District 
of Columbia? 

3. Will you oppose the admission of any slave States which may be 
formed out of Texas or the Territories "? 

4. Will you vote for and advocate the repeal of the fugitive-slave law 
passed at the recent session of Congress ? 

5. Will you advocate and vote for the election of a Speaker of the 
House of Representatives who shaU be willing to organize the committees of 
that House so as to give the free States their just influence in the business of 
legislation ? 

6. What are your views, not only as to the constitutional right of Con- 
gi'ess to prohibit the slave-trade between the States, but also as to the expe- 
diency of exercising that right immediately ? 

CampbelVs Reply. 

To the first and second interrogatories, I answer unequivocally in the 
affirmative. 

To the third interrogatory, I reply that I am opposed to the admission of 
any more slave States into the Union, that may be formed out of Texan or 
any other teiTitory. 

To the foiu-th and fifth interrogatories, I unhesitatingly answer in the af- 
firmative. 

To the sixth interrogatory, I reply that so long as the slave States continue 
to treat slaves as articles of commerce, the Constitution confers pow'er on 
Congress to pass laws regulating that peculiar commerce, and that the pro- 
tection of human rights imperatively demands the interposition of every 
constitutional means to prevent this most inhuman and iniquitous traffic. 

T. Campbell. 

I want to say here that Thompson Campbell was elected to Con- 

fress on that platform, as the Democratic candidate in the Galena 
istrict, against Martin P. Sweet. 
Judge Douglas : Give me the date of the letter. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 353 

Mr. Lincoln: The time Campbell ran was in 1850. I have not 
the exact date here. It was some time in 1850 that these interroga- 
tories were put and the answer given. Campbell was elected to Con- 
gress, and served out his term. I think a second election came up 
before he served out his term, and he was not reelected. Whether 
defeated or not nominated, I do not know. [Mr. Campbell was nom- 
inated for reelection by the Democratic party, by acclamation.] At 
the end of his term his very good friend, Judge Douglas, got him a 
high office from President Pierce, and sent him off to California. Is 
not that the fact ? Just at the end of his term in Congress it appears 
that our mutual friend Judge Douglas got our mutual friend Camp- 
bell a good office, and sent him to California upon it. And not only 
so, but on the 27th of last month, when Judge Douglas and myself 
spoke at Freeport in joint discussion, there was his same friend 
Campbell, come all the way from California, to help the judge beat 
me ; and there was poor Martin P. Sweet standing on the platform, 
trying to help poor me to be elected. That is true of one of Judge 
Douglas's friends. 

So again, in that same race of 1850, there was a congressional 
convention assembled at Joliet, and it nominated R. S. Molony for 
Congress, and unanimously adopted the following resolution : 

Besolved, That we are uncompromisingly opposed to the extension of 
slavery ; and while we would not make such opposition a ground of inter- 
ference with the interests of the States where it exists, yet we moderately 
but firmly insist that it is the duty of Congi-ess to oppose its extension into 
territory now free by all means compatible with the obligations of the Con- 
stitution, and with good faith to oui- sister States; that these principles were 
recognized by the ordinance of 1787, which received the sanction of Thomas 
Jefferson^ who is acknowledged by aU to be the great oracle and expounder 
of our faith. 

Subsequently the same interrogatories were propounded to Dr. 
Molony which had been addressed to Campbell, as above, with the 
exception of the sixth, respecting the interstate slave-trade, to which 
Dr. Molony, the Democratic nominee for Congress, replied as follows: 

I received the interrogatories this day, and as you will see by the La Salle 
*' Democrat" and Ottawa " Free Trader," I took at Peru on the 5th and at 
Ottawa on the 7th, the affirmative side of interrogatories 1st and 2d ; and 
in relation to the admission of any more slave States from free territory, 
my position taken at these meetings, as cori'ectly reported in said papers, 
was emphatically and distinctly opposed to it. In relation to the admission 
of any more slave States from Texas, whether 1 shaU go against it or not 
will depend upon the opinion that I may hereafter form of the tme mean- 
ing and nature of the resolutions of annexation. If by said resolutions the 
honor and good faith of the nation is pledged to admit more slave States 
from Texas when she (Texas) may apply for admission of such State, then 
I should, if in Congress, vote for their admission. But if not so pledged and 
bound by sacred contract, then a biU for the admission of more slave States 
from Texas would never receive my vote. 

To your fourth interrogatory I answer most decidedly in the affirmative, 
and for reasons set forth in my reported remarks at Ottawa last Monday. 

To your fifth interrogatory I also reply in the affirmative most cordially, 
and that I wiU use my utmost exertions to secui'e the nomination and elec- 
VOL. I.— 23. 



354 ADDKESSES AND LETTEBS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

tion of a man who will accomplish the objects of said interrogatories. I 
most cordially approve of the resolutions adopted at the union meeting held 
at Princeton on the 27th September ult. Yours, etc., 

R. S. MOLONY. 

All I have to say in regard to Dr. Molony is that he was the reg- 
ularly nomiuated Democratic candidate for Congress in his district ; 
was elected at that time ; at the end of his term was appointed to a 
land-office at Danville. (I never heard anything of Judge Douglas's 
instrumentality in this.) He held this office a considerable time, 
and when we were at Freeport tlie other day, there were handbills 
scattered about notifying the public that after our debate was over 
R. S. Molony would make a Democratic speech in favor of Judge 
Douglas. That is all I know of my own personal knowledge. It is 
added here to this resolution (and truly, I believe) that *' among 
those who participated in the Joliet convention, and who supported 
its nominee, with his platform as laid down in the resolution of the 
convention, and in his reply as above given, we caU at random the 
following names, all of which are recognized at this day as leading 
Democrats : Cook County — E. B. Williams, Charles McDonell, 
Aruo Voss, Thomas Hovne, Isaac Cook," — I reckon we ought to 
except Cook,— "F. C. Sherman. Will — Joel A. Matteson, S. W. 
Bowen. Kane — B. F. Hall, G. W. Ren wick, A. M. Herrington, 
Elijah Wilcox. McHenry — W. M. Jackson, Enos W. Smith, Neil 
Donnelly. La Salle — John Hise, William Reddick" — William Red- 
dick — another one of Judge Douglas's friends that stood on the 
stand with him at Ottawa at the time the judge says my knees 
trembled so that I had to be carried away ! The names are all 
here : " DuPage — Nathan Allen. DeKalb — Z. B. Mayo." 

Here is another set of resolutions which I think are apposite to the 
matter in hand. 

On the 28th of February of the same year, a Democratic district 
convention was held at Naperville, to nominate a candidate for cir- 
cuit judge. Among the delegates were Bowen and Kelly, of Will; 
Captain Naper, H. H. Codv, Nathan Allen, of DuPage ; W. M. Jack- 
son, J. M. Strode, P. W. Piatt, and Enos W. Smith, of McHenry; 
J. Horsman and others, of Winnebago. Colonel Strode presided 
over the convention. The following resolutions were unanimously 
adopted — the first on motion of P. W. Piatt, the second on mo- 
tion of William M. Jackson : 

Besolved, That this convention is in favor of the Wilmot proviso, both in 
principle and practice, and that we know of no good reason why any per- 
son should oppose the largest latitude in free soil, free territory, and free 
speech. 

Besolved, That in the opinion of this convention, the time has amved 
when all men should be free, wliites as well as others. 

Judge Douglas: What is the date of those resolutions? 

Mr. Lincoln: I understand it was in 1850, but I do not know it. 
I do not state a thing and say I know it when I do not. But I have 
the highest belief that this is so. I know of no way to arrive at the 
conclusion that there is an error in it. I mean to put a case no 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 355 

stronger than the truth will allow. But what I was going to com- 
ment upon is an extract from a newspaper in DeKalb County, and 
it strikes me as being rather singular, I confess, under the circum- 
stances. There is a Judge Mayo in that county, who is a candidate 
for the legislature, for the purpose, if he secures his election, of 
helping to reelect Judge Douglas. He is the editor of a newspaper 
[DeKalb County " Sentinel "], and in that paper I find the extract I 
am going to read. It is part of an editorial article in which he was 
electioneering as fiercel}^ as he could for Judge Douglas and against 
me. It was a curious thing, I think, to be in such a paper. I will 
agree to that, and the judge may make the most of it : 

Our education has been such that we have ever been rather in favor of 
the equahty of the blacks ; that is, that they should enjoy all the privileges 
of the whites whei'e they reside. We are aware that this is not a very popu- 
lar doctrine. We have had many a confab with some who are now strong 
" Republicans," we taking the broad ground of equahty and they the oppo- 
site gi'ound. 

We were brought up in a State where blacks were voters, and we do not 
know of any inconvenience residting from it, though perhaps it would not 
work so well where the blacks are more numerous. We have no doubt of 
the right of the whites to guard against such an evil, if it is one. Our 
opinion is that it would be best for all concerned to have the colored popu- 
lation in a State by themselves [in this I agree with him] ; but if within 
the jurisdiction of the United States, we say by aU means they shoidd have 
the right to have their senators and their representatives in Congi-ess, and 
to vote for Pi-esident. With us ^' worth makes the man, and want of it the 
fellow." We have seen many a "nigger" that we thought more of than 
some white men. 

That is one of Judge Douglas's friends. Now I do not want to 
leave mj'self in an attitude where I can be misrepresented, so I wiU 
say I do not think the judge is responsible for this article ; but he 
is quite as responsible for it as I would be if one of my friends had 
said it. I think that is fair enough. 

I have here also a set of resolutions passed by a Democratic State 
conv^ention in Judge Douglas's own good old State of Vermont, and 
that, I think, ought to be good for him too. 

Besolved, That liberty is a right inlierent and inalienable in man, and 
that herein all men are equal. 

Resolved, That we claim no authority in the Federal Government to 
abolish slavery in the several States. But we do claim for it constitutional 
power perpetuaUy to prohibit the introduction of slavery into territory 
now free, and abolish it wherever, under the jiu-isdiction of Congress, it 
exists. 

Resolved, That this power ought immediately to be exercised in prohib- 
iting the introduction and existence of slavery in New IMexieo and Cali- 
fornia, in abolishing slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Columbia, 
on the high seas, and wherever else, under the Constitution, it can be 
reached. 

Resolved, That no more slave States should be admitted into the Federal 
Union. 

Resolved, That the government ought to return to its ancient pohcy, not 
to extend, nationahze, or encoiu'age, but to limit, localize, and discourage 
slavery. 



356 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

At Freeport I answered several interrogatories that had been pro- 

Eounded to nie by Judge Douglas at the Ottawa meeting. The judge 
as yet not seen fit to find any fault with the position that I took in 
regard to those seven interrogatories, which were certainly broad 
enough, in all conscience, to cover the entire ground. In my an- 
swers, which have been printed, and all have had the opportunity 
of seeing, I take the ground that those who elect me must expect 
that I will do nothing which will not be in accordance with those 
answers. I have some right to assert that Judge Douglas has no 
fault to find with them. But he chooses to still try to thrust me 
upon different ground without paying any attention to my answers, 
the obtaining of which from me cost him so much trouble and con- 
cern. At the same time, I propounded four interrogatories to him, 
claiming it as a right that he should answer as many interrogatories 
for mc as I did for him, and I would reserve myself for a future in- 
stalment when I got them ready. The judge, in answering me upon 
that occasion, put in what I suppose he intends as answers to all four 
of my interrogatories. The first one of these interrogatories I have 
before me, and it is in these words : 

Question 1. If the people of Kansas shall, by means entirely unobjection- 
able in all other respects, adopt a State constitution, and ask admission into 
the Union under it, before they have the requisite number of inhabitants 
according to tlie EngUsh bill, — some ninety-three thousand, — will you vote 
to admit them '? 

As I read the judge's answer in the newspaper, and as I remember 
it as pronounced at the time, he does not give any answer which is 
equivalent to yes or no — I will or I won't. He answers at very con- 
siderable length, rather quarreling with me for asking the question, 
and insisting that Judge Trumbull had done something that I ought 
to say something about; and finally getting out such statements as 
induce me to infer that he means to be understood he will, in that 
supposed case, vote for the admission of Kansas, I only bring this 
forward now for the purpose of saying that, if he chooses to put a 
different construction upon his answer, he may do it. But if he does 
not, I shall from this time forward assume that he will vote for the 
admission of Kansas in disregard of the English bill. He has the 
right to remove any misunderstanding I may have. I only mention 
it now that I may hereafter assume this to be the true construction 
of his answer, if he does not now choose to correct me. 

The second interrogatory that I propounded to him was this: 

Question 2. Can the people of a United States Teri'itory, in any lawful 
way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery 
from its limits prior to the formation of a State constitution? 

To this Judge Douglas answered that they can lawfully exclude 
slavery from the Territory prior to the formation of a constitution. 
He goes on to tell us how it can be done. As I understand him, he 
holds that it can be done by the territorial legislature refusing to 
make any enactments for the protection of slavery in the Territory, 
and especially by adopting unfriendly legislation to it. For the sake 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 357 

of clearness, I state it again : that they can exclude slavery from the 
Territory — first, by withholding what he assumes to be an indispen- 
sable assistance to it in the way of legislation; and, second, by un- 
friendly legislation. If I rightly understand him, I wish to ask your 
attention for a while to his position. 

In the first place, the Supreme Court of the United States has de- 
cided that any congressional prohibition of slavery in the Territories 
is unconstitutional — they have reached this proposition as a con- 
clusion from their former proposition, that the Constitution of the 
United States expressly recognizes property in slaves ; and from that 
other constitutional provision, that no person shall be deprived of 
property without due pi'ocess of law. Hence they reach the conclu- 
sion that as the Constitution of the United States expressly recognizes 
property in slaves, and prohibits any person from being deprived 
of property without due process of law, to pass an act of Con^Tess 
by which a man who owned a slave on one side of a line would be 
deprived of him if he took him on the other side is depriving him of 
that property without due process of law. That I understand to 
be the decision of the Supreme Court. I understand also that Judge 
Douglas adheres most firmly to that decision ; and the difficulty is, 
how is it possible for any power to exclude slavery from the Territory 
unless in violation of that decision ! That is the difficulty. 

In the Senate of the United States, in 1856, Judge Trumbull, in a 
speech, substantially, if not directly, put the same interrogatory to 
Judge Douglas, as to whether the people of a Territory had the 
lawful power to exclude slavery prior to the formation of a consti- 
tution ? Judge Douglas then answered at considerable length, and 
his answer will be found in the " Congressional Globe," under the 
date of June 9, 1856. The judge said that wdiether the people could 
exclude slavery prior to the formation of a constitution or not was 
a question to be decided by the Supreme Court. He put that propo- 
sition, as will be seen by the " Congi-essional Globe," in a variety of 
forms, all running to the same thing in substance — that it was a 
question for the Supreme Coiu't. I maintain that when he says, 
after the Supreme Court has decided the question, that the people 
may yet exclude slavery by any means whatever, he does virtually 
say that it is not a question for the Supreme Court. He shifts his 
ground. I appeal to you whether he did not say it was a question 
for the Supreme Court ? Has not the Supreme Court decided that 
question ? When he now says that the people may exclude slavery, 
does he not make it a question for the people ? Does he not virtu- 
ally shift his ground and say that it is not a question for the court, 
but for the people 1 This is a very simple proposition — a very plain 
and naked one. It seems to me that there is no difficulty in decid- 
ing it. In a variety of ways he said that it was a question for the 
Supreme Court. He did not stop then to tell us that, whatever 
the Supreme Court decides, the people can by withholding necessary 
" police regulations " keep slavery out. He did not make any such 
answer. I submit to you now, whether the new state of the case has 
not induced the judge to sheer away from his original gi'ound. 
Would not this be the impression of every fair-minded man? 



358 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I hold that the proposition that slavery cannot enter a new country 
without police regulations is historically false. It is not true at all. 
I hold that the history of this country shows that the institution 
of slavery was originally planted upon this continent without these 
"police regulations" which the judge now thinks necessary for 
the actual establishment of it. Not only so, but is there not another 
fact — how came this Dred Scott decision to be made ? It was made 
upon the case of a negro being taken and actually held in slavery in 
Minnesota Territor}', claiming his freedom because the act of Con- 
gress prohibited his being so held there. Will the judge pretend 
that Dred Scott was not held there without police regulations ? Thei'e 
is at least one matter of record as to his having been held in slavery 
in the Territory, not only without police regulations, but in the teeth 
of congressional legislation supposed to be valid at the time. This 
shows that there is vigor enough in slavery to plant itself in a new 
country even against unfriendly legislation. It takes not only law 
but the enforcement of law to keep it out. That is the history of 
this country upon the subject. 

I wish to ask one other question. It being understood that the 
Constitution of the United States guarantees property in slaves in 
the Territories, if there is any infringement of the right of that 
property, would not the United States courts, organized for the gov- 
ernment of the Territory, apply such remedy as might be necessary 
in that case ? It is a maxim held by the courts, that there is no 
wrong without its remedy ; and the courts have a remedy for what- 
ever is acknowledged and treated as a wrong. 

Again : I wiU ask you, my friends, if you were elected members of 
the legislature, what would be the first thing you would have to do 
before entering upon your duties ? Swear to support the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. Suppose you believe, as Judge Douglas 
does, that the Constitution of the United States guarantees to your 
neighbor the right to hold slaves in that Territory,— that they are 
his property, — how can you clear your oaths unless you give him 
such legislation as is necessary to enable him to enjoj^ that property ? 
What do you understand by supporting the Constitution of a State, 
or of the United States? Is it not to give such constitutional helps 
to the rights established by that Constitution as may be practically 
needed? Can you, if you swear to support the Constitution, and 
believe that the Constitution establishes a right, clear your oath, with- 
out giving it support ? Do you support the Constitution if, knowing 
or believing there is a right established under it which needs specific 
legislation, you withhold that legislation ? Do you not violate and 
disregard your oath ? I can conceive of nothing plainer in the world. 
There can be nothing in the words " support the Constitution," if jow 
may run counter to it by refusing support to any right established 
under the Constitution. And what I say here will hold with still 
more force against the judge's doctrine of " unfriendly legislation," 
How could you, having sworn to support the Constitution, and believ- 
ing that it guaranteed the right to hold slaves in the Territories, assist 
in legislation intended to defeat that right? That would be violat- 
ing your own view of the Constitution, Not only so, but if you were 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 359 

to do so, how long would it take the courts to hold your votes un- 
constitutional and void ? Not a moment. 

Lastly I would ask — Is not Congress itself under obligation to 
give legislative support to any right that is established under the 
United States Constitution? I repeat the question — Is not Congress 
itself bound to give legislative support to any right that is estab- 
lished in the United States Constitution ? A member of Congress 
swears to support the Constitution of the United States, and if he 
sees a right established by that Constitution which needs specific 
legislative protection, can he clear his oath without giving that pro- 
tection ? Let me ask you why many of us who are opposed to sla- 
very upon principle give our acquiescence to a fugitive-slave law ? 
Why do we hold ourselves under obligations to pass such a law, and 
abide by it when it is passed ? Because the Constitution makes pro- 
vision that the owners of slaves shall have the right to reclaim them. 
It gives the right to reclaim slaves, and that right is, as Judge Doug- 
las says, a barren right, unless there is legislation that will enforce it. 

The mere declaration, " No person held to service or labor in one 
State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in conse- 
quence of any law or regulation therein be discharged from such 
service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to 
whom such service or labor may be due," is powerless without spe- 
cific legislation to enforce it. Now, on what ground would a member 
of Congress who is opposed to slaver}^ in the abstract vote for a fu- 
gitive law, as I would deem it my duty to do f Because there is a 
constitutional right which needs legislation to enforce it. And al- 
though it is distasteful to me, I have sworn to support the Constitu- 
tion, and having so sworn, I cannot conceive that I do support it if 
I withhold from that right any necessary legislation to make it 
practical. And if that is true in regard to a fugitive-slave law, is 
the right to have fugitive slaves reclaimed any better fixed in the 
Constitution than the right to hold slaves in the Territories ? For 
this decision is a just exposition of the Constitution, as Judge Doug- 
las thinks. Is the one right any better than the other ? Is there 
any man who, while a member of Congress, would give support to 
the one any more than the other? If I wished to refuse to give 
legislative support to slave property in the Territories, if a member 
of Congress, I could not do it, holding the view that the Constitution 
establishes that right. If I did it at all, it would be because I deny 
that this decision properly construes the Constitution. But if I ac- 
knowledge, with Judge Douglas, that this decision properly construes 
the Constitution, I cannot conceive that I would he less than a per- 
jured man if I should refuse in Congress to give such protection to 
that property as in its nature it needed. 

At the end of what I have said here I propose to give the judge 
my fifth interrogatory, which he may take and answer at his leisure. 
My fifth interrogatory is this : 

If the slavehoiding citizens of a United States Territory should need 
and demand congressional legislation for the protection of their slave 
property in such Territory, would you, as a member of Congress, 
vote for or against such legislation ? 



360 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Judge Douglas: Will you repeat that? I want to answer that 
question. 

Mr. Lincoln: If the slaveholding citizens of a United States Ter- 
ritory should need and demand congressional legislation for the 
protection of their slave property in such Territory, would you, as 
a member of Congress, vote for or against such legislation ? 

I am aware that in some of the speeches Judge Douglas has made, 
he has spoken as if he did not know or think that the Supreme Court 
had decided that a territorial legislature cannot exclude slavery. 
Precisely what the judge would say upon the subject — whether he 
would say definitely that he does not understand they have so de- 
cided, or whether he would say he does understand that the court 
have so decided, I do not know ; but I know that in his speech at 
Springfield he spoke of it as a thing they had not decided yet ; and 
in his answer to me at Freeport, he spoke of it again, so far as I 
can comprehend it, as a thing that had not yet been decided. Now 
I hold that if the judge does entertain that view, I think that he is 
not mistaken in so far as it can be said that the court has not decided 
anything save the mere question of jurisdiction. I know the legal 
arguments that can be made — that after a court has decided that it 
cannot take jurisdiction in a case, it then has decided all that is be- 
fore it, and that is the end of it. A plausible argument can be made 
in favor of that proposition, but I know that Judge Douglas has said 
in one of his speeches that the court went forward, like honest men 
as they were, and decided all the points in the case. If any points 
are really extra- judicially decided becausenot necessarily before them, 
then this one as to the power of the territorial legislature to exclude 
slavery is one of them, as also the one that the Missouri Compromise 
was null and void. They are both extra-judicial, or neither is, ac- 
cording as the court held that they had no jurisdiction in the case 
between the parties, because of want of capacity of one party to 
maintain a suit in that court. I want, if I have sufficient time, to 
show that the court did pass its opinion, but that is the only thing 
actually done in the case. If they did not decide, they showed what 
they were ready to decide whenever the matter was before them. 
What is that opinion? After having argued that Congress had no 
power to pass a law excluding slavery from a United States Terri- 
tory, they then used language to this effect : That inasmuch as Con- 
gress itself could not exercise such a power, it followed as a matter 
of course that it could not authorize a territorial government to 
exercise it, for the territorial legislature can do no more than Con- 
gress could do. Thus it expressed its opinion emphatically against 
the power of a territorial legislature to exclude slavery, leaving us 
in just as little doubt on that point as upor any other point they 
really decided. 

Now, fellow-citizens, my time is nearly out. I find a report of a 
speech made by Judge Douglas at Joliet, since we last met at Free- 
port, — published, I believe, in the Missouri "Republican," — on the 
9th of this month, in which Judge Douglas says: 

You know at Ottawa I read this platform, and asked him if he eoncun*ed 
in each and all of the principles set forth in it. He would not answer these 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 361 

?uestions. At last I said frankly, " I wish you to answer them, because when 
get them up here where the color of your principles is a httle darker 
than in Egypt, I intend to trot you down to Jonesboro." The very notice that 
I was going to take him down to Egypt made him tremble in the knees so 
that he had to be earned fi-om the platform. He laid up seven days, and 
in the mean time held a consultation with his political physicians ; they had 
Lovejoy and Farnsworth and all the leaders of the Abolition party. They 
consulted it all over, and at last Lincoln came to the conclusion that he 
would answer ; so he came to Freeport last Friday. 

Now that statement altogether furnishes a subject for philosophical 
contemplation. I have been treating it in that way, and I have really 
come to the conclusion that I can explain it in no other way than by 
believing the judge is crazy. If he was in his right mind, I cannot 
conceive how he would have risked disgusting the four or five thou- 
sand of his own friends who stood there and knew, as to my having 
been carried from the platform, that there was not a word of truth 
in it. 

Judge Douglas: Did n't they carry you off? 

Mr. Lincoln: There; that question illustrates the character of 
this man Douglas, exactly. He smiles now and says, '^ Did n't they 
carry you off ? " But he said then, " He had to be carried off " ; and 
he said it to convince the country that he had so completely broken 
me down by his speech that I had to be carried away. Now he 
seeks to dodge it, and asks, "Did n't they carry you off?" Yes, 
they did. But, Judge Douglas, why did n't you tell the truth ? I 
would like to know why you did n't tell the truth about it. And 
then again, " He laid up seven days." He puts this in print for the 
people of the country to read as a serious document. I think if he 
had been in his sober senses he would not have risked that bare- 
facedness in the presence of thousands of his own friends, who 
knew that I made speeches within six of the seven days at Henry, 
Marshall County; Augusta, Hancock County; and Macomb, Mc- 
Donough County, including all the necessary travel to meet him 
again at Freeport at the end of the six days. Now, I say, there is 
no charitable way to look at that statement, except to conclude that 
he is actually crazy. There is another thing in that statement that 
alarmed me very greatly as he states it — that he was going to "trot 
me down to Egypt." Thereby he would have you to infer that I would 
not come to Egypt unless he forced me — that I could not be got 
here, unless he, giant-like, had hauled me down here. That state- 
ment he makes, too, in the teeth of the knowledge that I made the 
stipulation to come down here, and that he himself had been very 
reluctant to enter into the stipulation. More than all this, Judge 
Douglas, when he made that statement, must have been crazy, and 
wholly out of his sober senses, or else he would have known that, 
when he got me down here, that promise — that windy promise — 
of his powers to annihilate me would n't amount to anything. Now, 
how little do I look like being carried away trembling ? Let the 
judge go on, and after he is done with his half hour, I want you all, 
if I can't go home myself, to let me stay and rot here ; and if any- 
thing happens to the judge, if I cannot carry him to the hotel and 



362 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

put him to bed, let me stay here and rot. I say, then, there is some- 
thing extraordinary in this statement. I ask you if you know any 
other living man who would make such a statement? I will ask my 
friend Casey, over there, if he would do such a thing? Would he 
send that out and have his men take it as the truth ? Did the judge 
talk of trotting me down to Egypt to scare me to death ? Why, I 
know this people better than he does. I was raised just a little east 
of here. I am a part of this people. But the judge was raised 
further north, and perhaps he has some horrid idea of what this 
people might be induced to do. But really I have talked about 
this matter perhaps longer than I ought, for it is no great thing, 
and yet the smallest are often the most difficult things to deal with. 
The judge has set about seriously trying to make the impression 
that when we meet at different places I am literally in his clutches — 
that I am a poor, helpless, decrepit mouse, and that I can do nothing 
at all. This is one of the ways he has taken to create that im- 
pression. I don't know any other way to meet it, except this. I 
don't want to quarrel with him, — to call him a liar, — but when I 
come square up to him I don't know what else to call him, if I must 
tell the truth out. I want to be at peace, and reserve all my fight- 
ing powers for necessary occasions. My time, now, is very nearly 
out, and I give up the trifle that is left to the judge to let him set 
my knees trembling again — if he can. 

Mr. Douglas's Rejoinder in the Joneshoro Joint Debate. 

My friends, while I am very grateful to you for the enthusiasm 
which you show for me, I will say in all candor, that your quietness 
will be much more agreeable than your applause, inasmuch as you 
deprive me of some part of my time whenever you cheer. 

I will commence where Mr. Lincoln left off, and make a remark 
upon this serious complaint of his about my speech at Joliet. I did 
say there in a playful manner that when I put these questions to Mr. 
Lincoln at Ottawa, he failed to answer, and that he trembled, and had 
to be carried off the stand, and required seven days to get up his 
repl3^ That he did not walk off from that stand he will not deny. 
That when the crowd went away from the stand with me, a few per- 
sons carried him home on their shoulders and laid him down, he will 
admit. I wish to say to you that whenever I degrade my friends and 
myself l^y allowing them to carry me on their backs along through 
the public streets, when I am able to walk, I am willing to be deemed 
crazy. I did not say whether I beat him or he beat me in the argu- 
ment. It is true I put these questions to him, and I put them not 
as mere idle questions, but showed that I based them upon the creed 
of the Black Republican party, as declared by their conventions in 
that portion of the State which he depends upon to elect him, and 
desired to know whether he indorsed that creed. He would not 
answer. When I reminded him that I intended bringing him into 
Egypt and renewing my questions if he refused to answer, he then 
consulted, and did get up his answers one week after — answers which 
I may refer to in a few minutes, and show you how equivocal they 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 363 

are. My object was to make him avow whether or not he stood by 
the platform of his party ; the resolutions I then read, and upon 
which I based my questions, had been adopted by his party in the 
Galena congressional district, and the Chicago and Bloomington 
congressional districts, composing a large majority of the counties 
in this State that give Republican or Abolition majorities. 

Mr. Lincoln cannot and will not deny that the doctrines laid down 
in these resolutions were in substance put forth in Lovejoy's resolu- 
tions, which were voted for by a majority of his party, some of them, 
if not all, receiving the support of every man of his party. Hence 
I laid a foundation for my questions to him before I asked him 
whether that was or was not the platform of his party. He savs that 
he answered my questions. One of them was whether he would vote 
to admit any more slave States into the Union. The creed of the 
Republican party, as set forth in the resolutions of their various 
conventions, was that they would under no circumstances vote 
to admit another slave State. It was put forth in the Lovejoy 
resolutions in the legislature ; it was put forth and passed in a major- 
ity of all the counties of this State which give Abolition or Repub- 
lican majorities, or elect members to the legislature of that school of 
politics. I had a right to know whether he would vote for or against 
the admission of another slave State in the event the people wanted 
it. He first answered that he was not pledged on the subject, and 
then said: 

In regard to the other question, of whether I am pledged to the admission 
of any more slave States into the Union, I state to you very frankly that I 
would be exceedingly sorry ever to be put in the position of having to pass 
on that question. I should be exceedmgly glad to know that there would 
never be another slave State admitted into the Union; but I must add that 
if slavery shall be kept out of the Territories during the territorial existence 
of any one given Territory, and then the people, having a fair chance and 
clear field when they come to adopt a constitution, do such an extraordinary 
thing as adopt a slave constitution, uninfluenced by the actual presence of 
the institution among them, I see no alternative, if we own the country, but 
to admit them into the Union. 

Now analyze that answer. In the first place he says he would be 
exceedingly sorry to be put in a position where he would have to vote 
on the question of the admission of a slave State. Why is he a can- 
didate for the Senate if he would be sorry to be put in that position ? 
I tru.st the people of Illinois will not put him in a position which he 
would be so sorry to occupy. The next position he takes is that he 
would be glad to know that there would never be another slave State, 
yet, in certain contingencies, he might have to vote for one. What 
is that contingency? " If Congress keeps slavery out by law while 
it is a Territory, and then the people should have a fair chance and 
should adopt slavery, uninfluenced by the presence of the institution," 
he supposed he would have to admit the State. Suppose Congress 
should not keep slavery out during their territorial existence, then 
how would he vote when the people applied for admission into the 
Union with a slave constitution? That he does not answer, and that 
is the condition of every Territory we have now got. Slavery is not 



364 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

kept out of Kansas by act of Congress, and when I put the question 
to Mr. Lincohi, whetlier he will vote for the admission with or without 
slavery, as her people may desire, he will not answer, and you have 
not got an answer from him. In Nebraska slavery is not prohibited 
by act of Congress, but the people are allowed, under the Nebraska 
bill, to do as they please on the subject; and when I ask him whether 
he will vote to admit Nebraska with a slave constitution if her peo- 
ple desire it, he will not answer. So with New Mexico, Washington 
Territory, Arizona, and the four new States to be admitted from 
Texas. You cannot get an answer from him to these questions. His 
answer only applies to a given case, to a condition — things which he 
knows do not exist in any one Territory in the Union. He tries to 
give you to understand that he would allow the people to do as they 
please, and yet he dodges the question as to every Territory in the 
Union. I now ask why cannot Mr. Lincoln answer to each of these 
Territories? He has not done it, and he will not do it. The Aboli- 
tionists up North understand that this answer is made with a view 
of not committing himself on any one Territory now in existence. 
It is so understood there, and you cannot expect an answer from him 
on a case that applies to any one Territory, or applies to the new 
States which by compact we are pledged to admit out of Texas, when 
they have the requisite population and desire admission. I submit 
to you whether he has made a frank answer, so that you can tell how 
he would vote in any one of these cases. '^ He would be sorry to be 
put in the position." Why would he be sorry to be put in this posi- 
tion if his duty required him to give the vote? If the people of a 
Territory ought to be permitted to come into the Union as a State, 
with slavery or without it, as they pleased, why not give the vote ad- 
mitting them cheerfully? If in his opinion they ought not to come 
in with slavery, even if they wanted to, why not say that he would 
cheerfully vote against their admission ? His intimation is that con- 
science would not let him vote "No," and he would be sorry to do 
that which his conscience would compel him to do as an honest 
man. 

In regard to the contract or bargain between TrumbuU, the Aboli- 
tionists, and him, which he denies, I wish to say that the charge can 
be proved by notorious historical facts. Trumbull, Lovejoy, Gid- 
dings, Fred Douglass, Hale, and Banks were traveling the State at 
that time making speeches on the same side and in the same cause 
with him. He contents himself with the same denial that no such 
thing occurred. Does he deny that he, and Trumbull, and Breese, 
and Giddings, and Chase, and Fred Douglass, and Lovejoy, and all 
those Abolitionists and deserters from the Democratic party, did 
make speeches all over this State in the same common cause ? Does 
he deny that Jim Matheny was then, and is now, his confidential 
friend, and does he deny that Matheny made the charge of the bar- 
gain and fraud in his own language, as I liave read it from his printed 
speech. Matheny spoke of his own personal knowledge of that bar- 
gain existing between Lincoln, Truml)ull, and the Abolitionists. 
He still remains Lincoln's confidential friend, and is now a candidate 
for Congress, and is canvassing the Springfield district for Lincoln. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 365 

I assert that I can prove the charge to be true iu detail if I can 
ever get it where I can summon and compel the attendance of wit- 
nesses. I have the statement of another man to the same effect 
as that made b_y Matheny, which I am not permitted to use yet, but 
Jim Matheny is a good witness on that point, and the history of the 
country is conclusive upon it. That Lincoln up to that time had been 
a Whig, and then undertook to Abolitionize the Whigs and bring 
them into the Abolition camp, is beyond denial ; that Trumbull up 
to that time had been a Democrat, and deserted, and undertook to 
Abolitionize the Democracy, and take them into the AboUtion camp, 
is beyond denial; that they are both now active, leading, distin- 
guished members of this Abolition Republican party, in full com- 
munion, is a fact that cannot be questioned or denied. 

But Lincoln is not willing to be responsible for the creed of his 
party. He complains because I hold him responsible, and iu order 
to avoid the issue he attempts to show that individuals in the Demo- 
cratic party, many years ago, expressed Abolition sentiments. It is 
true that Tom Campbell, when a candidate for Congress in 1850, pub- 
lished the letter which Lincoln read. When I asked Lincoln for the 
date of that letter he could not give it. The date of the letter has 
been suppressed b}' other speakers who have used it, though I take 
it for granted that Lincoln did not know the date. If he will take 
the trouble to examine, he will find that the letter was published 
only two days before the election, and was never seen until after it, 
except in one count}'. Tom Campbell would have been beat to death 
by the Democratic party if that letter had been made public in his 
district. As to Molony, it is true that he uttered sentiments of the 
kind referred to by Mr. Lincoln, and the best Democrats would not 
vote for him for that reason. I returned from Washington after the 
passage of the compromise measures iu 1850, and when I found Mo- 
lony running under John Wentworth's tutelage, and on his plat- 
form, I denounced him, and declared that he was no Democrat. In 
my speech at Chicago, just before the election that year, I went be- 
fore the infuriated people of that city and vindicated the compromise 
measures of 1850. Remember, the city council had passed resolu- 
tions nulhfying acts of Congress and instructing the police to with- 
hold their assistance from the execution of the laws, and as I was the 
only man in the city of Chicago who was responsible for the passage 
of the compromise measm*es, I went before the crowd, justified each 
and every one of those measures, and let it be said to the eternal 
honor of the people of Chicago, that when they were con\'inced by my 
exposition of those measures that they were right, and they had done 
wrong in opposing them, they repealed their nullifying resolutions, 
and declared that they would acquiesce in and support the laws of 
the land. These facts are well known, and Mr. Lincoln can only 
get up individual instances, dating back to 1849-50, which are con- 
tradicted by the whole tenor of the Democratic creed. 

But Mr. Lincoln does not want to be held responsible for the 
Black Republican doctrine of no more slave States. Farnsworth 
is the candidate of his party to-day iu the Chicago district, and he 
made a speech in the last Congress in which he called upon God to 



366 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

palsy his right arm if he ever voted for the admissiuD of another 
slave State, whether the people wanted it or not. Lovejoy is 
making speeches all over the State for Lincoln now, and taking- 
ground against any more slave States. Washburue, the Black Re- 
publican candidate for Congress in the Galena district, is making- 
speeches in favor of this same Abolition platform declaring no more- 
slave States. Why are men running for Congress in the northern 
districts, and taking that Abolition platform for their guide, when 
Mr. Lincoln does not want to be held to it down here in Eg3'pt and 
in the center of the State, and objects to it so as to get votes here. 
Let me tell Mr. Lincoln that his party in the northei'n part of the 
State hold to that Abolition platform, and that if they do not in the 
south and in the center, they present the extraordinary spectacle of 
a ''house divided against itself," and hence ''cannot stand." I now 
bring down upon him the vengeance of his ov/n scripture quotation, 
and give it a more appropriate application than he did, when I say 
to him that his party, Abolition in one end of the State and opposed 
to it in the other, is a house divided against itself, and cannot stand, 
and ought not to stand, for it attempts to cheat the American peo- 
ple out of their votes by disguising its sentiments. 

Mr. Lincoln attempts to cover up and get over his Abolitionism 
by telling you that he was raised a little east of you, beyond the 
Wabash in Indiana, and he thinks that makes a mighty sound and 
good man of him on all these questions. I do not know that the 
place where a man is born or raised has much to do with his po- 
litical principles. The worst Abolitionists I have ever known in Illi- 
nois have been men who have sold their slaves in Alabama and 
Kentucky, and have come here and turned Abolitionists while spend- 
ing the money got for the negroes they sold, and I do not know 
that an Abolitionist from Indiana or Kentucky ought to have any 
more credit because he was born and raised among slave-holders. 
I do not know that a native of Kentucky is more excusable because 
raised among slaves; his father and mother having owned slaves, 
he comes to Illinois, turns Abolitionist, and slanders the graves of 
his father and mother, and breathes curses upon the institutions 
under which he was born, and his father and mother bred. True, 
I was not born out West here. I was born away dovm in Yankee 
land; I was born in a valley in Vermont, with the high mountains 
around me. I love the old green mountains and valleys of Ver- 
mont, where I was born, anti where I played in my childhood. I 
went up to visit them some seven or eight years ago, for the first 
time for twenty odd years. When I got there they treated me very 
kindly. They invited me to the commencement of their college, 
placed me on the seats with their distinguished guests, and con- 
ferred upon me the degree of LL. D. in Latin (doctor of laws), the 
same as they did Old Hickory, at Cambridge, many j^ears ago, and I 
give you my word and honor I understood just as much of the 
Latin as he did. When they got through conferring the honorary 
degree, they called upon me for a speech, and I got up with my 
heart full and swelling with gratitude for their kindness, and I said 
to them, " My friends, Vermont is the most glorious spot on the 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 367 

face of tins globe for a man to be boru in, provided he emigrates 
"wheu he is very young." 

I emigrated when I was very young. I came out here when I was 
a boy, and found my mind liberalized, and my opinions enlarged 
when I got on these broad prairies, with only the heavens to bound 
my vision, instead of having them circumscribed by the little narrow 
ridges that surrounded the valley where I was boi-n. But I discard 
all flings at the land where a man was born. I wish to be judged 
by my principles, by those great public measures and constitutional 
principles upon which the peace, the happiness, and the perpetuity 
of this republic now rest. 

Mr. Lincoln has framed another question, propounded it to me, 
and desired my answer. As I have said before, I did not put a ques- 
tion to him that I did not first lay a foundation for by showing that 
it was a part of the platform of the party whose votes he is now seek- 
ing, adopted in a majority of the counties where he now hopes to 
get a majority, and supported by the candidates of his party now 
running in those counties. But I will answer his question. It is as 
follows : " If the slaveholding citizens of a United States Territory 
should need and demand congressional legislation for the ijrotection 
of their slave property in such Territory, would you, as a member 
of Congress, vote for or against such legislation!" I answer him 
that it is a fundamental article in the Democratic creed that there 
should be non-interference and non-intervention by Congress with 
slavery in the States or Territories. Mr. Lincoln could have found an 
answer to his question in the Cincinnati platform, if he had desired 
it. The Democratic party have always stood by that great principle 
of non-interference and non-intervention by Congress with slavery in 
the States or Territories alike, and I stand on that platform now. 

Now I desire to call your attention to the fact that Lincoln did not 
define his own position in his own question. How does he stand on 
that question ? He put the question to me at Freeport whether or 
not I would vote to admit Kansas into the Union before she had 
93,420 inhabitants. I answered him at once that it having been de- 
cided that Kansas had now population enough for a slave State, she 
had population enough for a free State. 

I answered the question unequivocally, and then I asked him 
whether he would vote for or against the admission of Kansas before 
she had 93,420 inhabitants, and he would not answer me. To-day he 
has called attention to the fact that, in his opinion, my answer on that 
question was not quite plain enough, and yet he has not answered it 
himself. He now puts a question in relation to congressional inter- 
ference in the Territories to me. I answer him direct, and yet he has 
not answered the question himself. I ask you whether a man has 
any right, in common decency, to put questions, in these public dis- 
cussions, to his opponent, which he will not answer himself when 
they are pressed home to him. I have asked him three times, whether 
he would vote to admit Kansas whenever the people applied with a 
constitution of their own making and their own adoption, under cir- 
cumstances that were fair, just, and unexceptionable, but I cannot 
get an answer from him. Nor will he answer the question which he 



368 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

put to me, and which I have just answered, in rehition to congres- 
sional interference in the Territories, by making a slave code there. 
It is true that he goes on to answer the question by arguing that 
under the decision of the Supreme Court it is the duty of a man to 
vote for a slave code in the Territories. He says that it is his duty, 
under the decision that the court has made, and if he believes in that 
decision he would be a perjured man if he did not give the vote. I 
want to know whether he is not bound to a decision which is con- 
trary to his opinions just as much as to one in accordance with his 
opinions. If the decision of the Supreme Court, the tribunal created 
by the Constitution to decide the question, is final and binding, is he 
not bound by it just as strongly as if he was for it instead of against 
it originally 1 Is every man in this land allowed to resist decisions 
he does not like, and only support those that meet his approval ? 
What are important courts worth unless their decisions are binding 
on all good citizens? It is the fundamental principle of the judi- 
ciary that its decisions are final. It is created for that purpose, so 
that when you cannot agree among yourselves on a disputed point 
you appeal to the judicial tribunal^ which steps in and decides for 
you, and that decision is then binding on every good citizen. It is 
the law of the land just as much with Mr. Lincoln against it as for 
it. And yet he says if that decision is binding he is a perjured man 
if he does not vote for a slave code in the different Territories of this 
Union. Well, if you [turning to Mr. Lincoln] are not going to re- 
sist the decision, if you obey it, and do not intend to array mob law 
against the constituted authorities, then according to your own state- 
ment, you will be a perjured man if you do not vote to establish slavery 
in these Territories. My doctrine is, that even taking Mr. Lincoln's 
view that the decision recognizes the right of a man to carry his slaves 
into the Territories of the United States, if he pleases, yet after he gets 
there he needs affirmative law to make that right of any value. The 
same doctrine not only applies to slave property, but all other kinds of 
property. Chief Justice Taney places it upon the ground that slave 
property is on an equal footing with other property. Suppose one of 
your merchants should move to Kansas and open a liquor-store; he 
has a right to take groceries and liquors there, but the mode of selling 
them, and the circumstances under ■which they shall be sold, and all 
the remedies, must be prescribed by local legislation, and if that is 
unfriendly it will drive him out just as effectually as if there was a 
constitutional provision against the sale of liquor. So the absence 
of local legislation to encourage and support slave property in a 
Territory excludes it practically just as effectually as if there was 
a positive constitutional provision against it. Hence I assert that 
under the Dred Scott decision you cannot maintain slavery a day in 
a Territory where there is an unwilling people and unfriendly legis- 
lation. If the people are opposed to it, our right is a barren, worth- 
less, useless right; and if they are for it, they will support and 
encourage it. We come right back, therefore, to the practical ques- 
tion, if the people of a Territory want slavery they will have it, and 
if they do not want it you cannot force it on them. And this is the 
practical question, the great principle, upon which our institutions 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 369 

rest. I am willing to take the decision of the Supreme Court as it 
was pronounced by that august tribunal, without stopping to inquire 
whether I would have decided that way or not. I hav(i had many 
a decision made against me on questions of law which I did not like, 
but I was bound by them just as much as if I had had a hand in 
making them, and approved them. Did you ever see a lawyer or 
a client lose his case that he approved the decision of the court ? 
They always think the decision unjust when it is given against them. 
In a government of laws like ours we must sustain the Constitution 
as our fathers made it, and maintain the rights of the States as they 
are guaranteed under the Constitution, and then we will have peace 
and harmony between the different States and sections of this 
glorious Union. 



[September 16?] 1858. — Fragment. Notes for Speeches. 

I believe the declaration that " all men are created equal " is the 
great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest. 
That negro slavery is violative of that principle ; but that by our 
form of government that principle has not been made one of legal 
obligation. That by our form of government the States which have 
slavery are to retain or disuse it, at their own pleasure ; and that all 
others — individuals, free States, and National Government — are 
constitutionally bound to leave them alone about it. That our gov- 
ernment was thus fi'amed because of the necessity springing from 
the actual presence of slavery when it was formed. 

September 18, 1858. — Fourth Joint Debate at Charleston, 

Illinois. 

Mr. Lincoln's Opening Speech. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : It will be very difficult for an audience so 
large as this to hear distinctly what a speaker says, and consequently 
it is important that as profound silence be preserved as possil)le. 

While I was at the hotel to-day, an elderly gentleman called upon 
me to know whether I was really in favor of producing a perfect 
equality between the negroes and white people. While I had not 
proposed to myself on this occasion to say much on that subject, yet 
as the question was asked me I thought 1 would occupy perhaps five 
minutes in saying something in regard to it. I will say then that I 
am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way 
the social and political equality of the white and black races — that 
I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors 
of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry 
with white people ; and I will say in addition to this that there is a 
physical difference between the white and black races which I believe 
will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social 
and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while 
they do remain together there must be the position of superior and 
Vol. I.— 24. 



370 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

inferior, and I as mnch as any other man am in favor of having the 
superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion 
I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior 
position the negro should be denied everything. I do not understand 
that because I do not want a negro woman for a slave I must neces- 
sarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just let 
her alone. I am now in my fiftieth year, and I certainty never have 
had a black woman for either a slave or a wife. So it seems to me 
quite possible for us to get along without making either slaves or 
wives of negroes. I will add to this that I have never seen, to my 
knowledge, a man, woman, or child who was in favor of producing a 
perfect equality, social and political, between negroes and white men. 
I recollect of but one distinguished instance that I ever heard of so 
frequently as to be entirely satisfied of its correctness, and that is 
the case of Judge Douglas's old friend Colonel Richard M. Johnson. 
I will also add to the remarks I have made (for I am not going to 
enter at large upon this subject), that I have never had the least 
apprehension that I or my friends would marry negroes if there was 
no law to keep them from it 5 but as Judge Douglas and his friends 
seem to be in great apprehension that they might, if there were no 
law to keep them from it, I give him the most solemn pledge that I 
will to the very last stand by the law of this State, which forbids the 
marrying of white people with negroes. I will add one further word, 
which is this: that I do not understand that there is any place where 
an alteration of the social and political relations of the negro and the 
white man can be made except in the State legislature — not in the 
Congress of the United States; and as I do not really apprehend 
the approach of any such thing myself, and as Judge Douglas seems 
to be in constant horror that some such danger is rapidly approach- 
ing, I propose, as the best means to prevent it, that the judge be kept 
at home and placed in the State legislature to fight the measure. I 
do not propose dwelling longer at this time on the subject. 

When Judge Trumbull, our other senator in Congress, returned to 
Illinois in the month of August, he made a speech at Chicago, in 
which he made what may be called a charge against Judge Douglas, 
which I understand proved to be very offensive to him. The judge 
was at that time out upon one of his speaking tours through the 
country, and when the news of it reached him, as I am informed, 
he denounced Judge Trumbull in rather harsh terms for having said 
what he did in regard to that matter. I was traveling at that time, 
and speaking at the same places with Judge Douglas on subsequent 
days, and when I heard of what Judge Trumbull had said of Doug- 
las, and what Douglas had said back again, I felt that I was in a posi- 
tion where I could not remain entirely silent in regard to the matter. 
Consequently, upon two or tliree occasions I alluded to it, and al- 
luded to it in no other wise than to say that in regard to the charge 
brought by Trumbull against Douglas, I personalty knew nothing, 
and sought to say nothing about it — that I did personally know 
Judge Trumbull — that I believed him to be a man of veracity — 
that I believed him to be a man of capacity sufficient to know very 
well whether an assertion he was making, as a conclusion drawn 



ADDBESSES AND LETTEBS OF ABBAHAM LINCOLN 371 

from a set of facts, was true or false ; and as a conclusion of my own 
from that, I stated it as my belief, if Trumbull should ever be called 
upon, he would prove everything he had said. I said this upon two 
or three occasions. Upon a subsequent occasion. Judge Trumbull 
spoke again before an audience at Alton, and upon that occasion not 
only repeated his charge against Douglas, but arrayed the evidence 
he relied upon to substantiate it. This speech was published at 
length, and subsequently at Jacksonville Judge Douglas alluded to 
the matter. In the course of his speech, and near the close of it, he 
stated in regard to myself what I will now read: "Judge Douglas 
proceeded to remark that he should not hereafter occupy his time in 
refuting such charges made by Trumbull, but that Lincoln having 
indorsed the character of Trumbull for veracity, he should hold him 
(Lincoln) responsible for the slanders." I have done simply what I 
have told you, to subject me to this invitation to notice the charge. 
I now wish to say that it had not originally been my purpose to dis- 
cuss that matter at all. But inasmuch as it seems to be the wish of 
Judge Douglas to hold me responsible for it, then for once in my 
life I will play General Jackson, and to the just extent I take the 
responsibility. 

I wish to say at the beginning that I will hand to the reporters 
that portion of Judge Trumbull's Alton speech which was devoted 
to this matter, and also that portion of Judge Douglas's speech 
made at Jacksonville in answer to it. I shall thereby furnish the 
readers of this debate with the complete discussion betv/eeu Trum- 
bull and Douglas. I cannot now read them, for the reason that it 
would take half of my first hour to do so. I can only make some 
comments upon them. Trumbull's charge is in the following words : 
" Now, the charge is, that there was a plot entered into to have a 
constitution formed for Kansas, and put in force, without giving 
the people an opportunity to vote upon it, and that Mr. Douglas 
was in the plot." I will state, without quoting further, for all will 
have an opportunity of reading it hereafter, that Judge Trumbull 
brings forward what he regards as sufficient evidence to substan- 
tiate this charge. 

It will be perceived Judge Trumbull shows that Senator Bigler, 
upon the floor of the Senate, had declared there had been a confer- 
ence among the senators, in which conference it was determined to 
have an Enabling Act passed for the people of Kansas to form a 
constitution under; and in this conference it was agreed among 
them that it was best not to have a provision for submitting the con- 
stitution to a vote of the people after it should be formed. He then 
brings forward evidence to show, and showing, as he deemed, that 
Judge Douglas reported the bill back to the Senate with that 
claivse stricken out. He then shows that there was a new clause 
inserted into the bill, which would in its nature prevent a reference 
of the constitution back for a vote of the people — if, indeed, upon 
a mere silence in the law, it could be assumed that they had the 
right to vote upon it. These are the general statements that he 
has made. 

I propose to examine the points in Judge Douglas's speech, in 



372 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

which he attempts to answer that speech of Judge Trumbull's. 
When you come to examine Jud^e Douglas's speech, you will find 
that the first point he makes is : " Suppose it were true that there was 
such a change in the bill, and that I struck it out — is that a proof of 
a plot to force a constitution upon them against their will?" His 
striking out such a provision, if there was such a one in the bill, he 
argues, does not establish the proof that it was stricken out for the 
purpose of robbing the people of that right. I would say, in the first 
place, that that would be a most manifest reason for it. It is true, as 
Judge Douglas states, that many territorial bills have passed with- 
out having such a provision in them. I believe it is true, thougli I 
am not certain, that in some instances constitutions framed under 
such bills have been submitted to a vote of the people, with the law 
silent upon the subject; but it does not appear that they once had 
their enabling acts framed with an express provision for submit- 
ting the constitution to be framed to a vote of the peox)le, and then 
that it was stricken out when Congress did not mean to alter the 
effect of the law. That there have been bills which never had the 
provision in, I do not question ; but when was that provision taken 
out of one that it was in? More especially does this evidence tend 
to prove the proposition that Trumbull advanced, when we remem- 
ber that the provision was stricken out of the bill almost simulta- 
neously with the time that Bigler says there was a conference among 
certain senators, and in which it was agreed that a bill should be 
passed leaving that out. Judge Douglas, in answering Trumbull, 
omits to attend to the testimony of Bigler, that there was a meeting 
in which it was agreed they should so frame the bill that there should 
be no submission of the constitution to a vote of the people. The 
judge does not notice this part of it. If you take this as one piece 
of evidence, and then ascertain that simultaneously Judge Douglas 
struck out a provision that did require it to be submitted, and put 
the two together, I think it will make a pretty fair show of proof 
that Judge Douglas did, as Trumbull says, enter into a plot to put in 
force a constitution for Kansas without giving the people any op- 
portunity of voting upon it. 

But I must hurry on. The next ja'opositiou that Judge Douglas 
puts is this: "■ But upon examination it turns out that the Toombs 
bill never did contain a clause requiring the constitution to be sub- 
mitted." This is a mere question of fact, and can be determined by 
evidence. I only want to ask this question — why did not Judge 
Douglas say that these Avords were not stricken out of the Toombs 
bill, or this bill from which it is alh ged the provision was stricken 
out — a bill which goes by the name of Toombs, because he originally 
brought it forward ? I ask why, if the judge wanted to make a direct 
issue with Trumbull, did he not take the exact proposition Trumbull 
made in his speech, and say it was not stricken out? Trumbull has 
given the exact words that he says were in the Toombs bill, and he 
alleges that when the bill came back, they were stricken out. Judge 
Douglas does not say that the words which Trumbull says were 
stricken out, were not stricken out, but he says there was no provision 
iu the Toombs bill to submit the constitution to a vote of the people. 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OP ABEAHAM LINCOLN 676 

We see at once that he is merely making an issue upon the meaning 
of the words. He has not undertaken to say that Trumbull tells a 
lie about these words being stricken out; but he is really, when 
pushed up to it, only taking an issue upon the meaning of the words. 
Now, then, if there be any issue upon the meaning of the words, or 
if there be upon the question of fact as to whether these words were 
stricken out, I have before me what I suppose to be a genuine copy 
of the Toombs bill, in which it can be shown that the words Trumbull 
says were in it, were, in fact, originally there. If there be any dis- 
pute upon the fact, I have got the documents here to show they were 
there. If there be any controversy npon the sense of the words — 
whether these words which were stricken out really constituted a pro- 
vision for submitting the matter to a vote of the people, as that is a 
matter of argument, I think I ma}' as well use Trumbull's own argu- 
ment. He says that the proposition is in these words: 

That the following propositions be, and the same are hereby, offered to the 
said convention of the people of Kansas, when formed, for their free ac- 
ceptance or rejection ; which, if accepted by the convention and ratified by 
the people at the election for the adoption of the constitution, shall be 
obUgatory upon the United States and the said State of Kansas. 

Now, Trumbull alleges that these last words were stricken out of 
the bill when it came back, and he said this was a provision for 
submitting the constitution to a vote of the people, and his argu- 
ment is this: "Would it have been possible to ratify the land 
■propositions at the election for the adoption of the constitution, 
unless such an election was to be held?" That is Trumbull's argu- 
ment. Now, Judge Douglas does not meet the charge at all, but 
stands up and says there was no such proposition in that bill for 
submitting the constitution to be framed to a vote of the people. 
Trumbull admits that the language is not a direct provision for sub- 
mitting it, but it is a provision necessarily implied from another 
provision. He asks you how it is possible to ratify the land propo- 
sition at the election for the adoption of the constitution, if there was 
no election to be held for the adoption of the constitution. And he 
goes on to show that it is not any less a law because the provision 
is put in that indirect shape than it would be if it was put directly. 
But I presume I have said enough to draw attention to this point, 
and I pass it by also. 

Another one of the points that Judge Douglas makes upon 
Trumbull, and at very great length, is that Trumbull, while the 
bill was pending, said in a speech in the Senate that he supposed 
the constitution to be made would have to be submitted to the peo- 
ple. He asks, if Trumbull thought so then, what ground is there for 
anybody thinking otherwise now ? Fellow-citizens, this much may be 
said in reply : That bill had been in the hands of a party to which 
Trumbull did not belong. It had been in the hands of the com- 
mittee at the head of which Judge Douglas stood. Trumbull per- 
haps had a printed copy of the original Toombs bill. I liave not 
the evidence on that point, except a sort of inference I draw from 
the general course of business there. What alterations, or what 



374 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

provisions in the way of altering, were going on in committee, 
Trumbull had no means of knowing, until the altered bill was re- 
ported back. Soon afterward, when it was reported back, there 
was a discussion over it, and perhaps Trumbull in reading it hastily 
in the altered form did not perceive all the bearings of the altera- 
tions. He was hastily borne into the debate, and it does not follow 
that because there was something in it Trumbull did not perceive, 
that something did not exist. More than this, is it true that what 
Trumbull did can have any effect on what Douglas did ? Suppose 
Trumbull had been in the plot with these other men, would that let 
Douglas out of it? Would it exonerate Douglas that Trumbull 
did n't then perceive he was in the plot ? He also asks the question : 
Why did n't Trumbull propose to amend the bill if he thought it 
needed any amendment ? Wh}^, I believe that everything Judge 
Trumbull bad proposed, particularly in connection with this ques- 
tion of Kansas and Nebraska, since he had been on the floor or the 
Senate, had been promptly voted down by Judge Douglas and his 
friends. He had no promise that an amendment offered by him to 
anything on this subject would receive the slightest consideration. 
Judge Trumbull did bring the notice of the Senate at that time to 
the fact that there was no provision for submitting the constitution 
about to be made for the people of Kansas, to a vote of the people. 
I believe I may venture to say that Judge Douglas made some re- 
ply to this speech of Judge Trumbull's, but he never noticed that 
part of it at all. And so the thing passed by. I think, then, the 
fact that Judge Trumbull offered no amendment, does not throw 
much blame upon him ; and if it did, it does not reach the question 
of fact as to what Judge Douglas was doing. I repeat that if 
Trumbull had himself been in the plot, it would not at all relieve 
the others who were in it from blame. If I should be indicted for 
murder, and upon the trial it should be discovered that I had been 
implicated in that murder, but that the prosecuting witness was 
guilty too, that would not at all touch the question of my crime. It 
would be no relief to my neck that they discovered this other man 
who charged the crime upon me to be guilty too. 

Another one of the points Judge Douglas makes upon Judge 
Trumbull is that when he spoke in Chicago he made his charge 
to rest upon the fact that the bill had the provision in it for submit- 
ting the constitution to a vote of the people, when it went into his 
(Judge Douglas's) hands, that it was missing when he reported it to 
the Senate, and that in a public speech he had subsequently said the 
alteration in the bill was made while it was in committee, and that 
they were made in consultation between him (Judge Douglas) and 
Toombs. And Judge Douglas goes on to comment upon the fact of 
Trumbull's adducing in his Alton speech the proposition that the bill 
not only came back with that proposition stricken out, but with 
another clause and another provision in it saying that " until the 
complete execution of this act there shall be no election in said Ter- 
ritory," which Trumbull argued was not only taking the provision 
for submitting to a vote of the people out of the bill, but was adding 
an affirmative one, in that it prevented the people from exercising 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN 375 

the right under a bill that was merely silent on the question. Now 
in regard to what he says, that Trumbull shifts the issue — that he 
shifts his ground — and I believe he uses the term that "it being 
proven false, he has changed ground," — I call upon all of you when 
you come to examine that portion of Trumbull's speech (for it will 
make a part of mine), to examine whether Trumbull has shifted his 
ground or not. I say he did not shift his ground, but that he 
brought forward his original charge, and the evidence to sustain it 
yet more fully, but precisely as he originally made it. Then, in addi- 
tion thereto, he brought in a new piece of evidence. He shifted 
no ground. He brought no new piece of evidence inconsistent with 
his former testimony, but he brought a new piece tending, as he 
thought, and as I think, to prove his proposition. To illustrate: A 
man brings an accusation against auother, and on trial the man 
making the charge introduces A and B to prove the accusation. At 
a second trial he introduces the same witnesses, who tell the same 
story as before, and a third witness who tells the same thing, and 
in addition gives further testimony corroborative of the charge. So 
with Trumbull. There was no shifting of ground, nor inconsistency 
of testimony between the new piece of evidence and what he origi- 
nally introduced. 

But Judge Douglas says that he himself moved to strike out that 
last provision of the bill, and that on his motion it was stricken out 
and a substitute inserted. That I presume is the truth. I presume 
it is true that that last proposition was stricken out by Judge Doug- 
las. Trumbull has not said it was not. Trumbull has himself said 
that it was so stricken out. He says : " I am speaking of the bill as 
Judge Douglas reported it back. It was amended somewhat in the 
Senate before it passed, but I am speaking of it as he brought it 
back." Now, when Judge Douglas parades the fact that the provision 
was stricken out of the bill when it came back, he asserts nothing 
contrary to what Trumbull alleges. Trumbull has only said that he 
originally put it in — not that he did not strike it out. Trumbull 
says it was not in the bill when it went to the committee. When it 
came back it was in, and Judge Douglas said the alterations were 
made by him in consultation with Toombs. Trumbull alleges there- 
fore, as his conclusion, that Judge Douglas put it in. Then if Doug- 
las wants to contradict Trumbull and call him a liar, let him say he 
did not put it in, and not that he did n't take it out again. It is said 
that a bear is sometimes hard enough pushed to drop a cub, and so 
I presume it was in this case. I presume the truth is that Douglas 
put it in and afterward took it out. That, I take it, is the truth about 
it. Judge Trumbull says one thing ; Douglas says another thing, 
and the two don't contradict one another at all. The question is, 
what did he put it in for ? In the first place, what did he take the 
other provision out of the bill for"? — the pro\dsion which Trumbull 
argued was necessary for submitting the constitution to a vote of 
the people? What did he take that out for? and having taken it 
out, what did he put this in for ? I say that, in the run of things, it is 
not unlikely forces cons[)ired to render it vastly expedient for Judge 
Douglas to take that latter clause out again. The question that 



376 .\DDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Trumbull has made is that Judge Douglas put it in, and he don't 
meet Trumbull at all unless he denies that. 

In the clause of Judge Douglas's speech upon this subject he uses 
this language toward Judge Trumbull. He says : " He forges his 
evidence from beginning to end, and by falsifying the record he en- 
deavors to bolster up his false charge." Well, that is a pretty serious 
statement. Trumbull forges his evidence from beginning to end. 
Now upon my own authority I say that it is not true. What is a 
forgery? Consider the evidence that Trumbull has brought for- 
ward. When you come to read the speech, as you will be able to, 
examine whether the evidence is a forgery from beginning to end. 
He had the bill or document in his hand like that [holding up a pa- 
per]. He says that is a copy of the Toombs bill — the amendment 
offered by Toombs. He says that is a copy of the bill as it was 
introduced and went into Judge Douglas's hands. Now, does Judge 
Douglas say that is a forgery ? That is one thing Trumbull brought 
forward. Judge Douglas says he forged it from beginning to end ! 
That is the " beginning," we will say. Does Douglas say that is a 
forgery I Let him say it to-day, and we will have a subsequent ex- 
amination upon this subject. Trumbull then holds up another docu- 
ment like this, and says that is an exact copy of the bill as it came 
back in the amended form out of Judge Douglas's hands. Does 
Judge Douglas say that is a forgery"? Does he say it in his sweeping 
charge ? Does he say so now ? If he does not, then take this Toombs 
bill and the bill in the amended form, and it only needs to compare 
them to see that the provision is in the one and not in the other ; 
it leaves the inference inevitable that it was taken out. 

But while I am dealing with this question, let us see what Trum- 
bull's other evidence is. One other piece of evidence I will read. 
Trumbull says there are in this original Toombs bill these words : 
" That the following propositions be, and the same are hereby, offered 
to the said convention of the people of Kansas, when formed, for 
their free acceptance or rejection ; which, if accepted by the conven- 
tion and ratified by the people at the election for the adoption of the 
constitution, shall be obligatory upon the United States and the said 
State of Kansas." Now, if it is said that this is a forgery, we will 
open the paper here and see whether it is or not. Again, Trumbull 
says, as he goes along, that Mr. Bigler made the following statement 
in his place in the Senate, December 9, 1857 : 

I was present when that subject was discussed by senators before the 
bill was introduced, and the question was raised and discussed, whether 
the constitution, when formed, should be submitted to a vote of the people. 
It was held by those most inteUigent on the subject, that in view of all the 
difficulties surrounding that Territory, [and] the danger of any experiment at 
that time of a popular vote, it would be better there should be no such pro- 
vision in the Toombs bill; and it was my understanding, in all the inter- 
course I had, that the convention would make ;■ constitution, and send it 
here without submitting it to the popular vote. 

Then Trumbull follows on : 

In speaking of this meeting again on the 21st December, 1857 ["Con- 
gressional Glolbe," same volume, page 113] , Senator Bigler said : ' 'Nothing was 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 377 

further from my mind than to allude to any social or confidential interview. 
The meeting was not of that character. Indeed, it was semi-official and 
called to promote the public good. My recollection was clear that I left the 
conference under the impression that it had been deemed best to adopt 
measm*es to admit Kansas as a State through the agency of one popular 
election, and that for delegates to tliis convention. This impression was 
stronger because I thought the spu'it of the bill infringed upon the doctrine 
of non-intervention, to which I had great aversion ; but with the hope of 
accomplishing a gi-eat good, and as no movement had been made in that 
direction in the Ten-itory, I waived this objection, and concluded to support 
the measure. I have a few items of testimony as to the correctness of these 
impressions, and with their submission I shall be content. I have before 
me the bill reported by the senator from IDinois on the 7th of IMarch, 1856, 
pro\dding for the admission of Kansas as a State, the thu'd section of 
which reads as follows : 

" ' That the following propositions be, and the same are hereby, offered to 
the said convention of the people of Kansas, when formed, for their free 
acceptance or rejection ; wluch, if accepted by the convention and ratified 
by the people at the election for the adoption of the constitution, shall be 
obligatory upon the United States and the said State of Kansas.' 

*' The bill read in his place by the senator from Georgia, on the 25th of 
June, and referred to the committee on Territories, contained the same sec- 
tion word for word. Both these bills were under consideration at the 
conference referred to ; but, sir, when the senator from Illinois reported the 
Toombs bill to the Senate with amendments the next morning, it did not 
contain that portion of the third section which indicated to the convention 
that the constitution should be approved by the people. The words, ' and 
ratified by the people at the election for the adoption of the constitution,' 
had been stricken out." 

Now tliese things Trumbull says were stated by Bigler upon the 
floor of the Senate on certain days, and that they are recorded in the 
*^ Congressional Globe" on certain pages. Does Judge Douglas say 
this is a forgery ! Does he say there is no such thing in the '^ Con- 
gressional Globe " ? What does he mean when he saj's Judge Trum- 
bull forges his evidence from beginning to end! So again he says, 
in another place, that Judge Douglas, in his speech December 9, 1857 
["Congressional Globe," Part I, page 15], stated: 

That during the last session of Congress, I [Mr. Douglas] reported a bill 
from the committee on Territories, to authorize the people of Kansas to assem- 
ble and form a constitution for themselves. Subsequently the senator from 
Georgia [Mr. Toombs] brought forward a substitute for my bill, which, after 
being modified by him and myself in consultation, was passed by the Senate. 

Now Trumbull says this is a quotation from a speech of Douglas, 
and is recorded in the '' Congressional Globe." Is it a forgery ? Is 
it there or not? It may not be there, but I want the judge to take 
these pieces of evidence, and distinctly say they are forgeries if he 
dare do it. [A voice: "He will."] Well, sir, you had better not 
commit him. He gives other quotations — another from Judge 
Douglas. He says : 

I wUl ask the senator to show me an intimation, from any one member of 
the Senate, in the whole debate on the Toombs bill, and in the Union, from 
any quarter, that the constitution was not to be submitted to the public. I 



378 ADDKESSES AND LETTEliS OF ABBAHAM LINCOLN 

will venture to say that on all sides of the chamber it was so understood at 
the time. If the opponents of the bill had understood it was not, they 
would have made the point on it ; and if they liad made it, we should cer- 
tainly have yielded to it, and put in the clause. That is a discovery made 
since the President found out that it was not safe to take it for granted that 
that would be done which ought in fairness to have been done. 

Judge Trumbull says Douglas made that speech, and it is recorded. 
Does Judge Douglas say it is a forgery, and was not true? Trum- 
bull says somewhere, and I propose to skip it, but it will be found by 
any one who will read this debate, that he did distinctly bring it to 
the notice of those who were engineering the bill, that it lacked that 
provision, and then he goes on to give another quotation from Judge 
Douglas, where Judge Trumbull uses this language: 

Judge Douglas, however, on the same day and in the same debate, prob- 
ably recollecting or being reminded of the fact that I had objected to the 
Toombs bill, when pending, that it did not provide for a siibmission of the 
constitution to the people, made another statement, which is to be found in 
the same volume of the " Globe," page 22, in which he says : 

"That the bill was silent on this subject was true, and my attention was 
called to that about the time it was passed ; and I took the fan- construction 
to be, that powers not delegated were reserved, and that of course the con- 
stitution would be submitted to the people." 

Whether this statement is consistent with the statement just before made, 
that had the point been made it would have been yielded to, or that it was 
a new discovery, you will determine. 

So I say. I do not know whether Judge Douglas will dispute this, 
and yet maintain his position that Trumbull's evidence " was forged 
from beginning to end." I will remark that I have not got these 
" Congressional Globes" with me. They are large books and difficult 
to carry about, and if Judge Douglas shall say that on these points 
where Trumbull has quoted from them, there are no such passages 
there, I shall not be able to prove they are there upon this occasion, 
but I will have another chance. Whenever he points out the forgery 
and says, " I declare that this particular thing which Trumbull has 
uttered is not to be fouud where he says it is," then my attention will 
be drawn to that, and I will arm myself for the contest — stating 
now that I have not the slightest doubt on earth that I will find every 
quotation just where Trumbull says it is. Then the question is, how 
can Douglas call that a forgery ? How can he make out that it is a 
forgery ? What is a forgery ? It is the bringing forward something 
in writing or in print purporting to be of certain effect when it is 
altogether untrue. If you come forward with my note for one 
hundred dollars when I have never given such a note, there is a 
forgery. If you come forward with a letter purporting to be written 
by me which I never Avi'ote, there is another forgery. If you pro- 
duce anything in writing or in print saying it is so and so, the doc- 
ument not being genuine, a forgery has been committed. How do 
you make this a forgery when every piece of the evidence is genuine? 
If Judge Douglas does say these documents and quotations are false 
and forged, he has a full' right to do so, but until he does it specifi- 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 379 

cally, we don't know how to get at him. If he does say they are false 
and forged, I will then look further into it, and I presume I can 
procure the certificates of the proper officers that they are genuine 
copies. I have no doubt each of these extracts will be found exactly 
where Trumbull says it is. Then I leave it to you if Judge Douglas, 
in making his sweeping charge that Judge Trumbull's evidence is 
forged from beginning to end, at all meets the case — if that is the 
way to get at the facts. I repeat again, if he will point out which 
one is a forgery, I will carefully examine it, and if it proves that any 
one of them is really a forgery, it will not be me who will hold to 
it any longer. I have always wanted to deal with every one I meet 
candidly and honestly. If I have made any assertion not warranted 
by facts, and it is pointed out to me, I will withdraw it cheerfully. 
But I do not choose to see Judge Trumbull calumniated, and the 
evidence he has brought forward branded in general terms *' a 
forgery from beginning to end." This is not the legal way of meet- 
ing a charge, and I submit to all intelligent persons, both friends of 
Judge Douglas and of myself, whether it is. 

The point upon Judge Douglas is this. The bill that went into his 
hands had the provision in it for a submission of the constitution to 
the people; and I say its language amounts to an express provision 
for a submission, and that he took the provision out. He says it was 
known that the bill was silent in this particular; but I say, Judge 
Douglas, it was not silent when you got it. It was vocal with the 
declaration when you got it, for a submission of the constitution to 
the people. And now, my direct question to Judge Douglas is to 
answer why, if he deemed the bill silent on this point, he found it 
necessary to strike out those particular harmless words. If he had 
found the bill silent and without this provision, he might say what he 
does now. If he supposes it was implied that the constitution would 
be submitted to a vote of the people, how could these two lines so en- 
cumber the statute as to make it necessary to strike them out? How 
could he infer that a submission was still implied, after its express 
provision had been stricken from the bill ? I find the bill vocal with 
the provision, while he silenced it. He took it out, and although he 
took out the other provision preventing a submission to a vote of the 
people, I ask. v, hy did you first put it in? I ask him whether he took 
the original provision out, which Trumbull alleges was in the bill? 
If he admits that he did take it, I ask him what he did it for? It 
looks to us as if he had altered the bill. If it looks differently to 
him — if he has a different reason for his action from the one we as- 
sign him — he can tell it. I insistuponknowing whyhe made the bill si- 
lent upon that point when it was vocal before he put his hands upon it. 

I was told, before my last paragraph, that my time Avas within three 
minutes of being out. I presume it is expired now. I therefore close. 



Extract from Mr. TrumhuWs Speech made at Alton, referred to hy 
Mr. Lincoln in his opening at Charleston. 

I come now to another extract from a speech of Mr. Douglas, made at 
Beardstown, and reported in the " Missouri Republican." Tliis extract has 



380 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

reference to a statement made by me at Chicago, wherein I charged that an 
agreement had been entered into by the veiy persons now claiming credit 
for opposing a constitution not submitted to the people, to have a constitu- 
tion formed and pixt in force witJiout giving the people of Kansas an oppor- 
tunity to pass upon it. Without meeting this charge, which I substantiated 
by a reference to the record, my colleague is reported to have said : 

"For when this charge was once made in a much milder form in the 
Senate of the United States, I did brand it as a lie in the presence of Mr. 
Trumbull, and Mr. Trumbull sat and heard it thus branded, without daring 
to say it was true. I tell you he knew it to be false when he uttered it at 
( "hicago ; and yet he says he is ' going to cram the lie down his throat until 
he should cry enough.' The miserable, craven-hearted \\Tetch ! he would 
rather have both ears cut off than to use that language in my presence, 
where I could call him to account. I see the object is to draw me into a per- 
sonal controversy, with the hope thereby of concealing from the public the 
enormity of the principles to which they are committed. I shall not allow 
much of my time in this canvass to be occupied by these personal as- 
saults. I have none to make on Mr. Lincoln ; I have none to make on Mr. 
Trumbull ; I have none to make on any other political opponent. If I can- 
not stand on my own pubUc record, on my own private and pubhc character 
as history will record it, I will not attempt to rise by traducing the characters 
of other men. I will not make a blackguard of myself by imitating the 
course they have pursued against me. I have no charges to make against 
them." 

This is a singular statement, taken altogether. After indulging in lan- 
guage which would disgrace a loafer in the filthiest purheus of a fish- 
market, he winds up by saying that he will not make a blackguard of 
himself, that he has no charges to make against me. So I suppose he con- 
siders that to say of another that he knew a thing to be false when he 
uttered it, that he was a " miserable craven-hearted wretch," does not 
amount to a personal assault, and does not make a man a blackguard. A 
discriminating pubhc will judge of that for themselves ; but as he says he 
has "no charges to make on Mr. Trumbull," I suppose politeness requires 
I should beheve him. At the risk of again offending this mighty man of 
war, and losmg something more than my ears, I shall have the audacity 
to again read the record upon him, and prove and pin upon him, so that he 
cannot escape it, the truth of every word I uttei*ed at Chicago. You, fel- 
low-citizens, are the jiidges to determine whether I do this. My colleague 
says he is willing to stand on his priblic record. By that he shall be tried, 
and if he had been able to discriminate between the exposure of a public 
act by the record, and a personal attack upon the individual, he would have 
discovered that there was nothing personal in my Chicago remarks, unless 
the condemnation of himself by his own pubhc record is personal, and then 
you must judge who is most to blame for the torture his pubhc record in- 
flicts upon him, he for making, or I for reading it after it was made. As 
an individual I care very little about Judge Douglas one way or the other. 
It is his pubhc acts with wliich I have to do, and if they condemn, disgrace, 
and consign him to oblivion, he has only himself, not me, to blame. 

NoAV, the charge is that there was a plot entered into to have a constitu- 
tion formed for Kansas, and put in force, without giving the people an 
opportunity to pass upon it, and that Mr. Douglas was in the plot. This 
is as susceptible of proof by the record as is the fact that the State of Min- 
nesota was admitted into the Union at the last session of Congi-ess. 

On the 25tb of June, 1856, a bill was pending in the United States Senate 
to authorize the people of Kansas to form a constitution and come into the 
Union. On that day Mr. Toombs offered an amendment which he intended 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 381 

to propose to the bill, wliich was ordered to be printed, and, with the original 
bUl and other amendments, recommended to the Committee on Territories, 
of which Mr, Douglas was chairman. This amendment of Mr. Toombs, 
printed by order of the Senate, and a copy of which I have here present, 
provided for the appointment of commissioners, who were to take a census 
of Kansas, divide the Territory into election districts, and superintend the 
election of delegates to form a constitution, and contains a clause in the 
18th section which I will read to you, requiring the constitution which 
should be formed to be submitted to the people for adoption. It reads as 
follows : 

'' That the following propositions be, and the same are hereby, offered to 
the said convention of the people of Kansas, when formed, for their free 
acceptance or rejection ; which, if accepted by the convention and ratified 
by the people at the election for the adoption of the constitution, shall be 
obligatory upon the United States, and upon the said State of Kansas," etc, 

Tt has been contended by some of the newspaper press that this section 
did not require the constitution which should be formed to be suVjmitted 
to the people for appro^'al, and that it was only the land propositions which 
were to be submitted, Yoii will observe the language is that the proposi- 
tions are to be "ratified by the people at the election for the adoption of 
the constitution," Would it have been possible to ratify the land propo- 
sitions " at the election for the adoption of the constitution," unless such 
an election was to be held *? 

When one thing is required by a contract or law to be done, the doing 
of which is made dependent upon, and cannot be performed without, the 
doing of some other tiling, is not that other thing just as much requii-ed by 
the contract or law as the first ? It matters not in what part of the act, 
nor in what phraseology, the intention of the legislature is expressed, so 
you can clearly ascertain what it is ; and whenever that intention is ascer- 
tained from an examination of the language used, such intention is part of 
and a requirement of the law. Can any candid, fair-minded man read the 
section I have quoted, and say that the intention to have the constitution 
which should be formed submitted to the people for theii* adoption is not 
clearly expressed ? In my judgment there can be no controversy among 
honest men upon a proposition so plain as this, Mr, Douglas has never 
pretended to deny, so far as I am aware, that the Toombs amendment, as 
originally introduced, did require a submission of the (constitution to the 
people. This amendment of Mr. Toombs was referred to the committee of 
which Mr. Douglas was chairman, and reported back by him on the 30th 
of June, with the words "and ratified by the people at the election for 
the adoption of the constitution " stricken out, I have here a eop>' of the 
bill as reported back by Mr. Douglas to substantiate the statement I make. 
Various other alter'ations were also made in the bill to which I shall pres- 
ently have occasion to call attention. There was no other clause in the 
original Toombs bill requiiing a submission of the constitution to the peo- 
ple than the one I have read, and there was no clause whatever, after that 
was struck out, in the bill, as reported back by Judge Douglas, requiring 
a submission. I will now introduce a witness whose testimony cannot be 
impeached, he acknowledging himself to have been one of the conspirators, 
and privy to the fact about which he testifies. 

Senator Bigler, alluding to the Toombs bUl, as it was called, and which, 
after sundry amendments, passed the Senate, and to the propriety of sub- 
mitting the constitution which should be formed to a vote of the people, 
made the following statement in his place in the Senate, December 9. 
1857. I read from Part I, " Congi*essioual Globe" of last session, para- 
graph 21 : 



382 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

'*I was present when that subject was discussed by senators, before the 
bill was introduced, and the question was raised and discussed whether the 
constitution, Avhen formed, should be submitted to a vote of the people. It 
was held by the most intelligent on the subject that in view of all the diffi- 
culties suiTOunding that Territory, [and] the danger of any experiment at 
that time of a popular vote, it would be better that there should be no such 
provision in the Toombs biU ; and it is my understanding, in all the inter- 
course I had, that the convention would make a constitution and send it here 
without submitting it to the popular vote." 

In speaking of this meeting again on the 21st of December, 1857 ("Con- 
gressional Globe," same volume, page 113), Senator Bigler said : 

" Nothing was farther from my mind than to aUude to any social or con- 
fidential interview. The meeting was not of that character. Indeed, it was 
semi-official, and called to promote the pu))lic good. My recollection was 
clear that I left the conference under the impression that it had been deemed 
best to adopt measiu'es to admit Kansas as a State thi'ough the agency of 
one popular election, and that for delegates to the convention. This im- 
pression was the stronger because I thought the spirit of the bill infringed 
upon the doctrine of non-intervention, to which I had great aversion ; but 
with the hope of accomplishing gi-eat good, and as no movement had been 
made in that du*ection in the Territory, I waived this objection, and con- 
cluded to support the measure. I have a few items of testimony as to the 
correctness of these impressions, and with their submission I shall he content. 
I have before me the bill reported by the senator from Illinois on the 7th 
of March, 1856, providing for the admission of Kansas as a State, the third 
section of which reads as follows : 

*' ' That the following propositions be, and the same are hereby, offered to 
the said convention of the people of Kansas, when formed, for their free 
acceptance or rejection ; which, if accepted by the convention and ratified 
by the people at the election for the adoption of the constitution, shall be 
obligatory upon the United States, and upon the said State of Kansas.' 

" The bill read in j)lace by the senator from Georgia, on the 25th of June, 
and referred to the Committee on Territories, contained the same section, 
word for word. Both these bills were vmder consideration at the confer- 
ence refeiTed to ; but, sir, when the senator from Illinois reported the 
Toombs bill to the Senate, with amendments, the next morning, it did not 
contain that portion of the third section which indicated to the convention 
that the constitution should l)e approved by the people. The words ' and 
ratified l\v the people at the election for the adoption of the constitution ' 
had been stricken out." 

I am not now seeking to prove that Douglas was in the plot to force a 
constitution upon Kansas without allowing the people to vote directly upon 
it. I shall attend to that branch of the subject by and by. My object now 
is to prove the existence of the plot, what the design was, and I ask if I have 
not already done so. Here are the facts : 

The introduction of a bill on the 7th of March, 1856, providing for the 
calling of a convention in Kansas to form a State constitution, and pro- 
viding that the constitution should be submitted to the people for adoption; 
an amendment to this bill, proposed by Mr. Toombs, containing the same 
requirement ; a reference of these various bills to the Committee on Terri- 
tories ; a consultation of senators to determine whether it was adAasable to 
have the constituti(m submitted for ratification ; the determination that it 
was not advisal)le ; and a report of the bill l)ack to the Senate next morning, 
with the clause providing for the submission stricken out — could evidence 
be more complete to establish the first part of the charge I have made of a 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 383 

plot having- been entered into by somebody to have a constitution adopted 
without submitting it to the people ? 

Now, for the other part of the charge. That Judge Douglas was in this plot, 
whether knowingly or ignorantly, is not material to my pm-pose. The 
charge is that he was an instrument cooperating in the project to have a 
constitution formed and put into operation without affording tlie people an 
opportunity to pass upon it. The first evidence to sustain the charge is the 
fact that he reported back the Toombs amendment with the clause provid- 
ing for the submission stricken out: this, in connection with his speech in 
the Senate on the 9th of December, 1857 (''Congressional Globe," Part I, 
page 14), wherein he stated: 

"That during the last Congress, I [Mr. Douglas] reported a bill from the 
Committee on Territories, to authorize the people of Kansas to assemble 
and form a constitution for themselves. Subsequently the senator from 
Georgia [Mr. Toombs] brought forward a substitute for my bill, which, after 
having been modified by him and myself in consultation, was passed by the 
Senate." 

This of itself ought to be sufficient to show that my colleague was an in- 
strument in the plot to have a constitution put in force without submitting 
it to the people, and to forever close his mouth from attempting to deny. 
No man can reconcile his acts and former declarations with his present de- 
nial, and the only charitable conclusion would be that he was being used by 
others without knowing it. Whether he is entitled to the benefit of even 
this excuse, you must judge on a candid hearing of the facts I shall present. 
When the charge was fii'st made in the United States Senate, by Mr. Bigler, 
that my colleague had voted for an Enabling Act which put a government 
in operation without submittiug the constitution to the people, my colleague 
("Congressional Globe," last session. Part I, page 24) stated: 

" I will ask the senator to show me an intimation from any one member of 
the Senate, in the whole debate on the Toombs bill, and in the Union from 
any quarter, that the constitution was not to be submitted to the people. I 
will venture to say that on all sides of the chamber it was so understood at 
the time. If the opponents of the bill had understood it was not, they would 
have made the point on it; and if they had made it we should certainly have 
yielded to it, and put in the clause. That is a discovery made since the 
President found out that it was not safe to take it for granted that that would 
be done which ought in fairness to have been done." 

I knew, at the time this statement was made, that I had urged the very 
objection to the Toombs bill two years before, that it did not provide for 
the submission of the constitution. You will find my remarks, made on the 
2d of July, 1856, in the appendix to the " Congressional Globe" of that year, 
page 179, urging this very objection. Do you ask why I did not expose him 
at the time ? I will teU you. Mr. Douglas was then doing good service 
against the Lecompton iniquity. The Eepublicans were then engaged in a 
hand-to-hand fight with the National Democracy, to prevent the bringing 
of Kansas into the Union as a slave State against the wishes of its inhabi- 
tants, and of course I was unwilling to turn our guns fi-om the common 
enemy to strike down an ally. Judge Douglas, however, on the same day, 
and in the same debate, probably recollecting, or being reminded of the 
fact, that I had objected to the Toombs bill, when pending, that it did not 
provide for the submission of the constitution to the people, made another 
statement, which is to be found in the same volume of the " Congi-essional 
Globe," page 22, in wliicli he says : 

" That the bill was silent on the subject is true, and my attention was 
called to that aboiit the time it was passed j and I took the fair construction 



384 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHA^I LINCOLN 

to be, that powers not delegated were resei'ved, and that of course the con- 
stitution would be submitted to the people." 

Whethov this .statement is consistent with the statement just before made, 
that had the point been made it would have been yielded to, or that it 
was a new discovery, you will determine ; for if the public records do not 
convict and condemn him, he may go uncondemned, so far as I am con- 
cerned. I make no use here of tlie testimony of Senator Bigler to show 
that Jrolge Douglas must have been privy to the consultation held at his 
liouse, when it was determined not to submit the constitution to the people, 
because Judge Douglas denies it, and I wish to use his own acts and decla- 
rations, which ai'e abundantly sufficient for my purpose. 

I come to a piece of testimony wliich disposes of all these various pre- 
tenses which have been set up for striking out of the original Toombs proposi- 
tion the clause requiring a submission of the constitution to the people, and 
shows that it was not done either by accident, by inadvertence, or because 
it was believed that the bill, being silent on the subject, the constitution 
would necessarily be submitted to the people for approval. What wiU you 
think, after listening to the facts ah-eady presented to show that there was 
a design with those who concocted the Toombs bill, as amended, not to sub- 
mit the constitution to the people, if I now bring iDcfore you the amended 
bill as Judge Douglas reported it back, and show the clause of the original 
bill requiring submission was not only struck out, but that other clauses 
were inserted in the bill putting it absolutely oiit of the power of the con- 
vention to submit the constitution to the people for approval, had they 
desu'ed to do so 1 If I can produce such evidence as that, will you not all 
agree that it clinches and establishes forever all I charged at Chicago, and 
more too ? 

I propose now to furnish that evidence. It wiU be remembered that Mr. 
Toombs's bill provided for holding an election for delegates to form a con- 
stitution under the supervision of commissioners to be appointed by the 
President, and in the biU, as reported back by Judge Douglas, these words, 
not to be found in the original biU, are inserted at the close of the 11th sec- 
tion, viz.: 

"And until the complete execution of this act no other election shall be 
held in said Temtory." 

This clause put it out of the power of the convention to refer to the people 
for adoption ; it absolutely prohibited the holding of any other election than 
that for the election of delegates, till that act was completely executed, 
which would not have been until Kansas was admitted as a State, or, at all 
events, till her constitution was fuUy prepared and ready for submission to 
Congress for admission. Other amendments reported by Judge Douglas 
to the original Toombs bill clearly show that the intention was to enable 
Kansas to become a State A\dthout any fui-ther action than simply a resolu- 
tion of admission. The amendment reported by Mr. Douglas, that " until 
the next congressional apportionment the said State shall have one repre- 
sentative," clearly shows this, no such provision being contained in the 
original Toombs bill. For what other earthly pui-pose could the clause to 
prevent any other election in Kansas, except that of delegates, till it was 
admitted as a State, have been inserted except to prevent a submission of 
the constitution, when formed, to the people ? 

The Toombs bill did not pass in the exact shape in which Judge Douglas 
reported it. Several amendments were made to it in the Senate. I am now 
dealing with the action of Judge Douglas as connected with that biU, and 
speak of the bill as he recommended it. The facts I have stated in regard 
to this matter appear upon the records, which I have here present to show 
to any man who wishes to look at them. They establish, beyond the power 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 385 

of controversy, all the charjxes I have made, and show that Judge Douglas 
was made use of as an instrument by others, or else knowingly was a party 
to the scheme to have a government put in force over the people of Kansas, 
without giving them an opportunity to pass upon it. That others high in 
position in the so-called Democratic party were parties to such a scheme is 
confessed by Governor Bigler ; and the only reason why the scheme was 
not carried, and Kansas long ago forced into the Union as a slave State, is 
the fact that the Republicans were sufficiently strong in the House of Rep- 
resenta^tives to defeat the measure. 



Extract from Mr. Douglas'' s Speech made at Jacksonville, and referred to 
by Mr. Lincoln in his opening at Charleston. 

I have been reminded by a friend behind me that there is another topic 
upon which there has been a desire expressed that I should speak. I am 
told that Mr. Lyman Trumbull, who has the good fortune to hold a seat in 
the United States Senate, in violation of the bargain between him and 
Lincoln, was here the other day and occupied his time in making certain 
charges against me, involving, if they be true, moral turpitude. I am also 
informed that the charges he made here were substantially tlie same as 
those made by him in the city of Chicago, which were printed in the news- 
papers of that city. I now propose to answer those charges and to anni- 
hilate every pretext that an honest man has ever had for repeating them. 

In order that I may meet these chai'ges fairly, I will read them, as made 
by Mr. Trumbull in his Chicago speech, in his own language. He says: 

'*Now, fellow-citizens, I make the distinct charge that there was a pre- 
concerted arrangement and plot entered into by the very men who now 
claim credit for opposing a constitution not submitted to the people, to 
have a constitution formed and put in force without giving the people an 
opportunity to pass upon it. This, my fi-iends, is a serious charge, but I 
charge it to-night, that the very men who traverse the country under ban- 
ners, proclaiming popular sovereignty, by design concocted a bill on pur- 
pose to force a constitution upon that people." 

Again, speaking to some one in the crowd, he says : 

''And you want to satisfy yom-self that he was in the plot to force a con- 
stitution upon that people ? I will satisfy yon. I will cram the truth 
down any honest man's throat, until he cannot deny it, and to the man 
who does deny it, I will cram the lie down his throat till he shall cry 
enough ! It is preposterous — it is the most damnable eifi'ontery that man 
ever put on to conceal a scheme to defraud and cheat the people out of their 
rights, and then claim credit for it." 

That is polite and decent language for a senator of the United States. 
Remember that that language was used without any provocation whatever 
from me. I had not alluded to him in any manner in any speech that I 
had made ; hence it was without provocation. As soon as he sets his foot 
within the State, he makes the direct charge that I was a party to a plot 
to foi'ce a constitution upon the people of Kansas against their will, and 
knowing that it would be denied, he talks about cramming the lie down 
the throat of any man who shall deny it, until he cries enough. 

Why did he take it for granted that it would be denied, unless he knew 
it to be false ? Wliy did he deem it necessary to make a thi*eat in advance 
that he would '' cram the he" down the throat of any man that should deny 
it? I have no doubt that the entire Abolition party consider it very polite 
for Mr. Trumbull to go round uttering calumnies of that kind, bull^-ing and 
talking of cramming Ues down men's throats j but if I deny any of his lies 

Vol. I.— 25. 



386 ADDEESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

by calling liim a liar, they are shocked at the indecency of the language; 
hence, to-day, instead of calling him a liar, I intend to prove that he is one. 

I wish, iu the first place, to refer to the evidence adduced by Trumbull, 
at Chicago, to sustain his charge. He there declared that Mr. Toombs, of 
Georgia, introduced a bill into Congress authorizing the people of Kansas 
to form a constitution and come into the Union, that, when introduced, it 
contained a clause requii'ing the constitution to be submitted to the people, 
and that I struck out the words of that clause. 

Suppose it were true that there was such a clause in the bill, and that 
I struck it out, is that proof of a plot to force a constitution upon a people 
against their will? Bear in mind that, fi-om the days of George Washington 
to the administration of Fi'ankhn Pierce, there has never been passed by 
Congress a bill requiring the submission of a constitution to the people. If 
Trumbull's charge, that I struck out that clause, were tme, it would only 
prove that I had reported the bill in the exact shape of every bill of like 
character that passed under Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Moni-oe, Jack- 
son, or any other president, to the time of the then present administration. 
I ask you would that be evidence of a design to force a constitution on a 
people against their will ■? If it were so, it would be evidence against Wash- 
ington, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Van Buren, and every other president. 

But upon examination, it turns out that the Toombs bill never did con- 
tain a clause requiring the constitution to be submitted. Hence no such 
clause was ever stricken out by me or anybody else. It is true, however, 
that the Toombs bill and its authors all took it for granted that the consti- 
tution would be submitted. There had never been in the history of this 
government any attempt made to force a constitution upon an unwilUng 
people, and nobody dreamed that any such attempt woidd be made, or 
deemed it necessary to provide for such a contingency. If such a clause 
was necessary in Mr. Trumbull's opinion, why did he not offer an amend- 
ment to that effect 1 

In order to give more pertinency to that question, I vnll read an extract 
from Trumbull's speech in the Senate, on the Toombs bill, made on the 2d 
day of July, 1856. He said : 

"We are asked to amend this bill, and make it perfect, and a liberal 
spirit seems to be manifested on the part of some senators to have a fair 
bill. It is difficult, I admit, to frame a bill that wiU give satisfaction to all ; 
but to approach it, or come near it, I think two things must be done." 

The first, then, he goes on to say, was the application of the Wilmot pro- 
viso to the Territories, and the second the repeal of all the laws passed by 
the territorial legislature. He did not then say that it was necessary to 
put in a clause requiring the submission of the constitution. Why, if he 
thought such a provision necessary, did he not introduce it? He says in his 
speech that he was invited to offer amendments. Why did he not do so ? 
He cannot pretend that he had no chance to do this, for he did offer some 
amendments, but none requiring submission. 

I now proceed to show that Mr. Trumbull knew at the time that the bill 
was silent as to the subject of submission^ and also that he, and everybody 
else, took it for granted that the constitution would be submitted. Now for 
the evidence. In his second speech he says: " The biU in many of its fea- 
tures meets my approbation." So he did not think it so very bad. 

Further on he says : 

'' In regard to the measure introduced by the senator from Georgia [Mr. 
Toombs] , and recommended by the committee, I regard it, in many respects, 
as a most excellent bill ; but we must look at it in the light of surrounding 
circumstances. In the condition of things now existing in the country, I 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 387 

do not consider it as a safe measure, nor one which will give peace^ and I 
will give my reasons. First, it affords no immediate relief. It provides for 
taking a census of the voters in the Temtory, for an election in November, 
and the assembling of a convention in December, to form, if it thinks proper, 
a constitution for Kansas, preparatory to its admission into the Union as a 
State. It is not until December that the convention is to meet. It would 
take some time to form a constitution. I suppose that constitution would 
have to be ratified bj^ the people before it becomes vaUd." 

He there expressly declared that he supposed, under the bill, the constitu- 
tion would have to be submitted to the people before it became valid. He 
went on to say : 

'' No provision is made in this bill for such a ratification. This is objec- 
tionable to my mind. I do not think the people should be bound by a 
constitution, without passing upon it directly, themselves." 

Why did he not offer an amendment proxdding for such a submission, if 
he thought it necessary ? Notwithstanding the absence of such a clause, he 
took it for gi-anted that the constitution would have to be ratified by the 
people, under the bill. 

In another part of the same speech, he says : 

" There is nothing said in this bill, so far as I have discovered, about sub- 
mitting the constitution which is to be framed to the people, for their 
sanction or rejection. Perhaps the convention would have the right to 
submit it, if it should think proper ; but it is certainly not compelled to do 
so, according to the provisions of the bill. If it is to be submitted to the 
people, it will take time, and it will not be until some time next year that 
this new constitution, affinned and ratified by the j)eople, would be submit- 
ted here to Congress for its acceptance, and what is to be the condition of 
that people in. the mean time ? " 

You see that his argument then was that the Toombs bill would not get 
Kansas into the Union quick enough, and was objectionable on that account. 
He had no fears about this submission, or why did he not introduce an 
amendment to meet the case ? [A voice : " Why did n't you? You were 
chairman of the committee."] I will answer that question for you. 

In the first place, no such provision had ever before been put in any simi- 
lar act passed by Congress. I did not suppose that there was an honest man 
who would pretend that the omission of such a clause furnished evidence of 
a conspiracy or attempt to impose on the people. It could not be expected 
that such of us as did not think that omission was evidence of such a scheme 
would offer siich an amendment ; but if Trumbull then believed what he 
now says, why did he not offer the amendment, and try to prevent it, when 
he was, as he says, invited to do so ? 

In tliis connection I will tell you what the main point of discussion was. 
There was a bill pending to admit Kansas whenever she should have a popu- 
lation of 93,420, that being the ratio required for a member of Congress. 
Under that bill Kansas coiold not have become a State for some years, be- 
cause she could not have had the requisite population. Mr. Toombs took 
it into his head to bring in a bill to admit Kansas then, with only twenty-five 
or thirty thousand people, and the question was whether we would allow 
Kansas to come in under this bill, or keep her out under mine until she had 
93,420 people. The committee considered that question, and oveiTuled me 
by deciding in favor of the immediate admission of Kansas, and I reported 
accordingly. I hold in my hand a copy of the report which I made at that 
time. I will read from it : 

" The point upon which your committee hav^e entertained the most serious 
and grave doubts in regard to the propriety of indorsing the proposition 



388 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

relates to the fact that, in the absence of any census of the inhabitants, there 
is reason to apprehend that the Territory does not contain sufficient popu- 
lation to entitle them to demand admission under the treaty with France, if 
we take the ratio of representation for a member of Congress as the rule." 

Thus yoii see that in the written report accompanying the bill, I said that 
the great difficulty with the committee was the question of population. In 
the same report I happened to refer to the question of submission. Now, 
listen to what I said about that : 

" In the opinion of yom- committee, whenever a constitution shall be 
formed in any Territory, preparatory to its admission into the Union as a 
State, jutitice, the genius of our institutions, the whole theory of our repub- 
lican system, imperatively demand that the voice of the people shall be 
fairly expressed, and their will embodied in that fundamental law without 
fraud or violence, or intimidation, or any other improper or unlawful influ- 
ence, and subject to no other restrictions than those imposed by the Consti- 
tution of the United States." 

I read this from the report I made at the time on the Toombs bill. I will 
read yet another passage from the same report. After setting out the 
features of the Toombs bill, I contrast it with the proposition of Senator 
Seward, saying : 

" The revised proposition of the senator from Georgia refers aU matters 
in dispute to the decision of the present population, with guarantees of fair- 
ness and safeguards against frauds and violence, to which no reasonable 
man can And just grounds of exception, while the senator from New York, 
if his proposition is designed to recognize and impart vitaUty to the Topeka 
constitution, proposes to disfranchise not only all the emigrants who have 
arrived in the Territory this year, but all the law-abiding men who refused 
to join in the act of open rebellion against the constituted authorities of the 
Territory last year by making the unauthorized and unlawful action of a 
pohtical party the fundamental law of the whole people." 

Then, again, I repeat that under that bill the question is to be referred to 
the present population to decide for or against coming into the Union under 
the constitution they may adopt. 

Mr. Trumljull, v/hen at Chicago, rested his charge upon the allegation 
that the clause requiring submission was originally in the bill, and was 
stricken out l^y me. When that falsehood was exposed by a publication of 
the record, he went to Alton and made another speech, repeating the charge, 
and referring to other and different evidence to sustain it. He saw that he 
was caught in his first falsehood, so he changed the issue, and instead of 
resting upon the allegation of striking out, he made it rest upon the declara- 
tion that I had introduced a clause into the bill prohibiting the people from 
voting upon the constitution. I am told that he made the same charge 
here that he made at Alton, that I had actually introduced and incorpo- 
rated into the bill a clause which prohibited the people from voting upon 
theii* constitution. I hold his Alton speech in my hand, and wiU read the 
amendment which he alleges that I offered. It is in these words : 

'' And until the complete execution of this act no other election shall be 
held in said Territoiy." 

Trumliull says the object of that amendment was to prevent the conven- 
tion from sul:)mitting the constitution to a vote of the people. I will read 
what he said at Alton on that subject : 

'' This clause put it out of the power of the convention, had it been so 
disposed, to submit the constitution to the people for adoption ; for it ab- 
solutely prohibited the holding of any other election, than that for the 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 389 

election of delegates, till that act was completely executed, which would 
not have been till Kansas was admitted as a State, or, at all events, till her 
constitution was fully prepared and ready for submission to Congress for 
admission." 

Now, do you suppose that Mr. Trumbull siipposed that that clause pro- 
hibited the convention from submitting- the constitution to the people, 
when, in his speech in the Senate, he declared that the convention had a 
right to submit it ? In his Alton speech, as will be seen by the extract 
which I have read, he declared that the clause put it out of the power of the 
convention to submit the constitution, and in his speech in the Senate he 
said: 

'' There is nothing said in this bill, so far as I have discovered, about 
submitting the constitution which is to be formed to the people, for their 
sanction or rejection. Perhaps tlie convention could have the right to sub- 
mit it, if it should think proper, but it is certainly not compelled to do so 
according to the provisions of the bill." 

Thus you see that, in Congress, he declared the bill to be silent on the 
subject, and a few days since, at Alton, he made a speech, and said that 
there was a provision in the bill prohibiting submission. 

I have two answei's to make to that. In the first place, the amendment 
which he quotes as depriving the people of an opportunity to vote upon the 
constitution was stricken out on my motion — absolutely stricken out and not 
voted on at all ! In the second place, in lieu of it, a provision was voted in 
authorizing the convention to order an election whenever it pleased. I will 
read. After Trumbull had made his speech in the Senate, declaring that 
tlie constitution would probably be submitted to the people, although the 
bill was silent upon that subject, I made a few remarks, and offered two 
amendments, which you may find in the appendix to the ''Congressional 
Globe," volume XXXIII, first session of the thirty-fourth Congress, page 795. 

I quote : 

''Mr. Douglas: I have an amendment to offer from the Committee on 
Territories. On page 8, section 11, strike out the words ' until the complete 
execution of this act no other election shall be held in said Territory,' and 
insert the amendment which I hold in my hand." 

The amendment was as follows : 

"That all persons who shall possess the other qualifications prescribed 
for voters under this act, and who shall have been bona fide inhabitants of 
said Territory since its organization, and who shall have absented themselves 
therefrom in consequence of the disturbances therein, and who shall return 
before the first day of October next, and become bona fide inhabitants of the 
Territory, with the intent of making it their permanent home, and shall 
present satisfactory evidence of these facts to the Board of Commissioners, 
shall be entitled to vote at said election, and shall have their names placed 
on said corrected list of voters for that purpose." 

That amendment was adopted unanimously. After its adoption, the 
record shows the following: 

" Mr. Douglas : I have another amendment to offer from the committee, 
to follow the amendment which has been adopted. The bill reads now: 
'And until the complete execution of this act, no other election shall be held 
in said Temtory.' It has been suggested that it should be modified in this 
way : ' And to avoid all conflict in the complete execution of this act, aU other 
elections in said Tenitory are hereby posti^oned until such time as said con- 
vention shall appoint'; so that they can appoint the day in the event that 
there should be a faihu-e to come into the Union." 



390 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

This amendment was also agreed to witliout dissent. 

Thus you see that the amendment quoted by Trumbull at Alton as evi- 
dence against me, instead of being put into the bill by me, was stricken out 
on my motion, and never became a part thereof at all. You also see that 
the substituted clause expressly authorized the convention to appoint such 
day of election as it should deem proper. 

Mr. Trumbull, when he made that speech, knew these facts. He forged 
liis evidence from beginning to end, and by falsifying the record he en- 
deavors to bolster up his false charge. I ask you what you think of Trum- 
bull thus going around the counti-y, falsifying and garbling the public 
records ? I ask you whether you will sustain a man who will descend to the 
infamy of such conduct "? 

Mr. Douglas proceeded to remark that he should not hereafter occupy his 
time in refuting such charges made by Trumbull, but that Lincoln having 
indorsed the character of Trumbull for veracity, he should hold him [Lin- 
coln] responsible for the slanders. 



Senator Douglass Reply in the Charleston Joint Delate. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : I had supposed that we assembled here 
to-day for the purpose of a joint discussion between Mr. Lincoln 
and myself, upon the political questions which now agitate the 
whole countiy. The rule of such discussions is, that the opening 
speaker shall touch upon all the points he intends to discuss, 
in order that his opponent, in reply, shall have the opportunity of 
answering them. Let me ask you what questions of public policy, 
relating to the welfare of this State or the Union, has Mr. Lincoln 
discussed before you ? Mr. Lincoln simply contented himself at the 
outset by saying, that he was not in favor of social and political 
equality between the white man and the negro, and did not desire 
the law so changed as to make the latter voters or eligible to office. 
I am glad that I have at last succeeded in getting an answer out of 
him upon this subject of negro-citizenship and eligibility to office, 
for I have been trying to bring him to the point on it ever since this 
canvass commenced. 

I wiU now call your attention to the question which Mr. Lincoln 
has occupied his entire time in discussing. He spent his whole hour 
in retailing a charge made by Senator TrumbuU against me. The 
circumstances out of which that charge was manufactured, occurred 
prior to the last presidential election, over two years ago. If the 
charge was true, why did not Trumbull make it in 1856, when I was 
discussing the questions of that day all over this State with Lincoln 
and him, and when it was pertinent to the then issue f He was then 
as silent as the grave on the subject. If the charge was true, the 
time to have brought it foi-ward was the canvass of 1856, the year 
when the Toombs bill passed the Senate. When the facts were fresh in 
the public mind, when the Kansas question was the paramount ques- 
tion of the day, and when such a charge would have had a material 
bearing on the election, why did he and Lincoln remain silent then, 
knowing that such a charge could be made and proved if true? 
Were they not false to you and false to the country in going through 
that entire campaign, concealing their knowledge of this enormous 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 391 

conspiracy which, Mr. Tnimbull says, he then knew and would not 
tell ? Mr. Lincoln intimates, in his speech, a good reason why Mr. 
Trumbull would not tell ; for he says that it might be true, as I 
proved that it was at Jacksonville, that Trumbull was also in the 
plot, yet that the fact of Trumbull's being in the plot would not in 
any way relieve me. He illustrates this argument by supposing 
himself on trial for murder, and says that it would be no extenuating 
circumstance if, on his trial, another man was found to be a party 
to his crime. Well, if Trumbull was in the plot, and concealed it 
in order to escape the odium which would have fallen upon himself, 
I ask you whether you can believe him now when he turns State's 
evidence, and avows his own infamy in order to implicate me. 
I am amazed that Mr. Lincoln should now come forward aud indorse 
that charge, occupying his whole hour in reading Mr. Trumbull's 
speech in support of it. Why, I ask, does not Mr. Lincoln make 
a speech of his own instead of taking up his time reading Trumbull's 
speech at Alton ? I supposed that Mr. Lincoln was capable of making 
a public speech on his own account, or I should not have accepted the 
banter from him for a joint discussion. [" How about the charges? "] 
Do not trouble yourselves ; I am going to make my speech in my 
own way, and I trust, as the Democrats listened patiently and respect- 
fully to Mr. Lincoln, that his friends will not interrupt me when I 
am answering him. Wlien Mr. Trumbull returned from the East, 
the first thing he did when he landed at Chicago was to make a 
speech wholly devoted to assaults upon my public character and 
public action. Up to that time I had never alluded to his course in 
Congress, or to him directly or indirectly ; and hence his assaults 
upon me were entirely without provocation and without excuse. 
Since then he has been traveling from one end of the State to the 
other repeating his vile charge. I propose now to read it in his own 
language : 

Now, fellow-citizens, I make the distinct charge that there was a precon- 
certed aiTangeinent and plot entered into by the very men who now claim 
credit for opposing a constitution formed and put in force without giving 
the people any opportunity to pass upon it. This, my friends, is a serious 
charge, but I charge it to-night that the very men who traverse the country 
under banners proclaiming popular sovereignty, by design concocted a biU 
on piu-pose to force a constitution upon that people. 

In answer to some one in the crowd, who asked him a question, 
Trumbull said : 

And you want to satisfy yourself that he was in the plot to force a con- 
stitution upon that people ? I wiU satisfy you. I wiU cram the truth down 
any honest man's throat until he cannot deny it. And to the man who does 
deny it, I vnH cram the lie down his throat till he shaU cry enough. 

It is preposterous — it is the most damnable effi'ontery that man ever put 
on — to conceal a scheme to defraud and cheat the people out of their rights, 
and then claim credit for it. 

That is the polite language Senator Trumbull applied to me, his 
colleague, when I was two hundred miles off. Why did he not speak 
out as boldly in the Senate of the United States, and cram the lie 



392 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

down my throat when I denied the charge, first made by Bigler, and 
made him take it back ? You all recollect how Bigler assaulted me 
when I was engaged in a hand-to-hand fight, resisting a scheme to 
force a constitution on the people of Kansas against their will. He 
then attacked me with this charge ; but I proved its utter falsity, 
nailed the slander to the counter, and made him take the back track. 
There is not an honest man in America who read that debate who 
will pretend that the charge is true. Trumbull was then present in 
the Senate, face to face with me, and why did he not then rise and 
repeat the charge, and say he would cram the lie down my throat? I 
tell you that Trumbull then knew it was a lie. He knew that Toombs 
denied that there ever was a clause in the bill he brought forward, 
calling for and requiring a submission of the Kansas constitution 
to the people. I will tell you what the facts of the case were. I in- 
troduced a bill to authorize the people of Kansas to form a constitu- 
tion and come into the Union as a State whenever they should have 
the requisite population for a member of Congress, and Mr. Toombs 
proposed a substitute, authorizing the people of Kansas, with their 
then population of only 25,000, to form a constitution, and come in 
at once. The question at issue was, whether we would admit Kansas 
with a population of 25,000, or make her wait until she had the ratio 
entitling her to a representative in Congress, which was 93,420. That 
was the point of dispute in the Committee on Territories, to which 
both my bill and Mr. Toombs's substitute had been referred. I was 
overruled by a majority of the committee, my proposition rejected, 
and Mr. Toombs's proposition to admit Kansas then, with her popu- 
lation of 25,000, adopted. Accordingly a biU to carry out his idea of 
immediate admission was reported as a substitute for mine — the 
only points at issue being, as I have already said, the question of 
population, and the adoption of safeguards against frauds at the 
election. Trumbull knew this, — the whole Senate knew it, — and 
hence he was silent at that time. He waited uhtil I became engaged 
in this canvass, and finding that I was showing up Lincoln's Aboli- 
tionism and negro-equality doctrines, that I was driving Lincoln to 
the wall, and white men would not support his rank Abolitionism, he 
came back from the East and trumped up a system of charges against 
me, hoping that I would be compelled to occupy my entire time in 
defending myself, so that I would not be able to show up the enor- 
mity of the principles of the Abolitionists. Now the only reason, 
and the true reason, whj'' Mr. Lincoln has occupied the whole of his 
first hour in this issue between Trumbull and myself^ is to conceal 
from this vast audience the real questions which divide the two 
great parties. 

I am not going to allow them to waste much of my time with 
these personal matters. I have lived in this State twenty-five years, 
most of that time have been in public life, and my record is open to 
you all. If that record is not enough to vindicate me from these 
l)etty, malicious assaults, I despise ever to be elected to office by slan- 
dering ray opponents and traducing other men. Mr. Lincoln asks 
you to elect him to the United States Senate to-day solely because he 
and Trumbull can slander me. Has he given any other reason f 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 393 

Has he avowed what he was desirous to do in Congress on any one 
question ? He desires to ride into office, not upon his own merits, 
not upon the merits and soundness of his principles, but upon his 
success in fastening a stale old slander upon me. 

I wish you to bear in mind that up to the time of the introduction 
of the Toombs bill, and after its introduction, there had never been 
an act of Congress for the admission of a new State which contained 
a clause requiring its constitution to be submitted to the people. 
The general rule made the law silent on the subject, taking it for 
granted that the people would demand and compel a popular vote 
on the ratification of then* constitution. Such was the general rule 
under Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, and Polk, under the 
Whig presidents and the Democratic presidents from the begin- 
ning of the government down, and nobody dreamed that an effort 
would ever be made to abuse the power thus confided to the people 
of a Territory. For this reason our attention was not called to the 
fact of whether there was or was not a clause in the Toombs bill 
compelling submission, but it was taken for granted that the consti- 
tution would be submitted to the people whether the law compelled 
it or not. 

Now I will read from the report by me as chaii'man of the Com- 
mittee on Territories at the time I reported back the Toombs sub- 
stitute to the Senate. It contained several things which I had voted 
against in committee, but had been overruled by a majority of the 
members, and it was my duty as chairman of the committee to re- 
port the bill back as it was agreed upon by them. The main point 
upon which I had been overruled was the question of population. 
In my report accompanying the Toombs bill, I said : 

In the opinion of your committee, whenever a constitution shall be formed 
in any Territory, preparatory to its admission into the Union as a State, 
justice, the genius of our institutions, the whole theory of our republican 
system, imperatively demand that the voice of the people shall be fairly 
expressed, and theh will embodied in that fundamental law, without fraud, 
or violence, or intimidation, or any other improper or imlawfrd influence, 
and subject to no other restrictions than those imposed by the Constitution 
of the United States. 

There you find that we took it for granted that the constitution 
was to be submitted to the people, whether the bill was silent on the 
subject or not. Suppose I had reported it so, following the example 
of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jack- 
son, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, and Pierce, 
would that fact have been evidence of conspiracy to force a constitu- 
tion upon the people of Kansas against their will f If the charge 
which Mr. Lincoln makes be true against me, it is true against 
Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, and every Whig president, as well 
as every Democratic president, and against Henry Clay, who, in the 
Senate or House, for forty years advocated bills similar to the one 
I reported, no one of them containing a clause compelling the sub- 
mission of the constitution to the people. Are Mr. Lincoln and Mr. 
Trumbull prepared to charge upon all those eminent men from the 



394 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

beginning of the government down to the present day, that the ab- 
sence of a provision compelling submission, in the various bills 
passed by them, authorizing the people of Territories to form State 
constitutions, is evidence of a corrupt design on their part to force a 
constitution upon an unwilling people ? 

I ask you to reflect on these thmgs, for I tell you that there is 
a conspiracy to carry this election for the Black Republicans by 
slander, and not by fair means. Mr. Lincoln's speech this day is 
conclusive evidence of the fact. He has devoted his entire time to 
an issue between Mr. Trumbull and myself, and has not uttered a 
word about the politics of the day. Are you going to elect Mr. 
Trumbull's colleague upon an issue between Mr. Trumbull and me? 
I thought I was running against Abraham Lincoln, that he claimed 
to be my opponent, had challenged me to a discussion of the public 
questions of the day with him, and was discussing these questions 
with me ; but it turns out that his only hope is to ride into office on 
Trumbull's back, who will carry him by falsehood. 

Permit me to pursue this subject a little further. An examination 
of the record proves that Trumbull's charge — that the Toombs bill 
originally contained a clause requiring the constitution to be sub- 
mitted to the people — is false. The printed copy of the bill which 
Mr. Lincoln held up before you, and which he pretends contains such 
a clause, merely contains a clause requiring a submission of the land 
grant, and there is no clause in it requiring a submission of the 
constitution. Mr. Lincoln cannot find such a clause in it. My report 
shows that we took it for granted that the people would require a 
submission of the constitution, and secure it for themselves. There 
never was a clause in the Toombs bill requiring the constitution to 
be submitted ; Trumbull knew it at the time, and his speech made 
on the night of its passage discloses the fact that he knew it was 
silent on the subject; Lincoln pretends, and tells you that Trumbull 
has not changed his evidence in support of his charge since he made 
his speech in Chicago. Let us see. The Chicago *' Times " took up 
Trumbull's Chicago speech, compared it with the official records of 
Congress, and proved that speech to be false in its charge that the 
original Toombs bill required a submission of the constitution to the 
people. Trumbull then saw that he was caught, and his falsehood 
exposed, and he went to Alton, and, under the very walls of the 
penitentiary, made a new speech, in which he predicated his assault 
upon me in the allegation that I had caused to be voted into the 
Toombs bill a clause which prohibited the convention from submit- 
ting the constitution to the people, and quoted what he pretended 
was the clause. Now, has not Mr. Trumbull entirely changed the 
evidence on which he bases his charge ? The clause wnich he quoted 
in his Alton speech (which he has pubhshed and circulated broadcast 
over the State) as having been put into the Toombs bill by me, is in 
the following words : " And until the complete execution of this act, 
no other election shall be held in said Territory." 

Trumbull says that the object of that amendment was to prevent 
the convention from submitting the constitution to a vote of the 
people. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 395 

Now I will show you that when Trumbull made that statement at 
Alton he knew it to be untrue. I read from Trumbull's speech in 
the Senate on the Toombs bill on the night of its passage. He 
then said: 

There is nothing said in this bill, so far as I have discovered, about sub- 
mitting the constitution, which is to be formed, to the people for their 
sanction or rejection. Perhaps the convention will have the right to submit 
it, if it should think proper ; biit it is certainly not compelled to do so accord- 
ing to the provisions of the bill. 

Thus you see that Trumbull, when the bill was on its passage in 
the Senate, said that it was silent on the subject of submission, and 
that there was nothing in the bill one way or the other on it. In his 
Alton speech he says there was a clause in the bill preventing its 
submission to the people, and that I had it voted in as an amend- 
ment. Thus I convict him of falsehood and slander by quoting from 
him on the passage of the Toombs bill in the Senate of the United 
States, his own speech, made on the night of July 2, 1856, and 
reported in the " Congressional Globe " for the first session of the 
Thirty-fourth Congress, Vol. XXXIII. What wiU you think of a man 
who makes a false charge and falsifies the records to prove it ? I will 
now show you that the clause which Trumbull says was put in the 
bill on my motion, was never put in at all by me,*^ but was stricken 
out on my motion and another substituted in its place. I call your 
attention to the same volume of the " Congressional Globe " to which 
I have already referred, page 795, where you will find the following 
report of the proceedings of the Senate : 

Mr. Douglas : I have an amendment to offer from the Committee on Ter- 
ritories. On page 8, section 11, strike out the words " until the complete exe- 
cution of this act, no other election shall be held in said Ten-itory," and 
insert the amendment which I hold in my hand. 

You see from this that I moved to strike out the very words that 
Trumbull says I put in. The Committee on Territories overruled me 
in committee, and put the clause in ; but as soon as I got the bill back 
into the Senate, I moved to strike it out, and put another clause in 
its place. On the same page you will find that my amendment was 
agreed to unanimously. I then offered another amendment, recog- 
nizing the right of the people of Kansas, under the Toombs bill, to 
order just such elections as they saw proper. You can find it on page 
796 of the same volume. I will read it : 

]\Ir. Douglas : I have another amendment to offer from the committee, 
to foUow the amendment which has been adopted. The bill reads now : 
"And until the complete execution of this act, no other election shall be 
held in said Territory." It has been suggested that it should be modified in 
this way: "And to avoid conflict in the complete execution of this act, all 
other elections in said Territory are hereby postponed until such time as 
said convention shall appoint": so that they can appoint the day in the 
event that there should be a failure to come into the Union. 

The amendment was unanimously agreed to — clearly and dis- 
tinctly recognizing the right of the convention to order just as many 



396 ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

elections as they saw proper in the execution of the act. Trumbull 
concealed in his Alton speech the fact that the clause he quoted had 
been stricken out on my motion, and the other fact that this other 
clause was put in the bill on my motion, and made the false charge 
that I incorporated into the biU a clause preventing submission, in 
the face of the fact that, on my motion, the bill was so amended be- 
fore it passed as to recognize in express words the right and duty of 
submission. 

On this record that I have produced before you, I repeat my charge 
that Trumbull did falsify the public records of the country, in order 
to make his charge against me, and I tell Mr. Abraham Lincoln that 
if he will examine these records, he will then know what I state is 
true. Mr. Lincoln has this day indorsed Mr. Trumbull's veracity 
after he had my word for it that that veracity was proved to be 
violated and forfeited by the public records. It will not do for Mr. 
Lincoln, in parading his calumnies against me, to put Mr. Trum- 
bull between him and the odium and responsibility which justly 
attach to such calumnies. I tell him that I am as ready to prose- 
cute the indorser as the maker of a forged note. I regret the neces- 
sity of occupying my time with these petty personal matters. It is 
unbecoming the dignity of a canvass for an office of the character 
for which we are candidates. "When I commenced the canvass at 
Chicago, I spoke of Mr. Lincoln in terms of kindness, as an old friend ; 
I said that he was a good citizen, of unblemished character, against 
whom I had nothing to say. I repeated these complimentary re- 
marks about him in my successive speeches, until he became the 
indorser for these and other slanders against me. If there is any- 
thing personally disagi-eeable, uncourteous, or disreputable in these 
personalities, the sole responsibility rests on Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Trum- 
bull, and their backers. 

I will show you another charge made by Mr. Lincoln against me, 
as an offset to his determination of willingness to take back anything 
that is incorrect, and to correct any false statement he may have 
made. He has several times charged that the Supreme Court, 
President Pierce, President Buchanan, and myself, at the time I 
introduced the Nebraska bill, in January, 18*54, at Washington, 
entered into a conspiracy to establish slavery all over this country. I 
branded this charge as a falsehood, and then he repeated it, asked me 
to analyze its truth, and answer it. I told him, "Mr. Lincoln, I know 
what you are after ; j^ou want to occupy my time in personal matters, 
to prevent me from showing up the revolutionary principles which 
the Abolition party — whose candidate you are — have proclaimed to 
the world." But he asked me to analyze his proof, and I did so. I 
called his attention to the fact that at the time the isTebraska bill was 
introduced, there was no such case as the Dred Scott case pending in 
the Supreme Court, nor was it brought there for years afterward, and 
hence that it was impossible there could have been any such con- 
spiracy between the judges of the Supreme Court and the other 
parties involved. I proved by the record that the charge was false, 
and what did he answer ? Did he take it back like an honest man 
and say he had been mistaken ? No ; he repeated the charge, and 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 397 

said, that although there was no such case pending that year, there 
was an understanding' between the Democratic owners of Dred Scott 
and the judges of the Supreme Court and other parties involved, that 
the case should be brought up. I then demanded to know who those 
Democratic owners of Dred Scott were. He could not or would not 
tell; he did not know. In truth, there were no Democratic owners 
of Dred Scott on the face of the land. Dred Scott was owned at that 
time by the Rev. Dr. Chaffee, an Abolition member of Congress 
from Springfield, Massachusetts, and his wife ; and Mr. Lincoln ought 
to have known that Dred Scott was so owned, for the reason that as 
soon as the decision was announced by the court, Dr. Chaffee and 
his wife executed a deed emancipating him, and put that deed on 
record. 

It was a matter of public record, therefore, that at the time the 
case was taken to the Supreme Court, Dred Scott was owned by an 
Abolition member of Congi'css, a friend of Lincoln's, and a leading- 
man of his party, while the defense was conducted by Abolition 
lawyers ; and thus the Abolitionists managed both sides of the case. 
I have exposed these facts to Mr. Lincoln, and j'et he will not with- 
draw his charge of conspiracy. I now submit to you whether you 
can place any confidence in a man who continues to make a charge 
when its utter falsity is proven by the pubhc records. I will state 
another fact to show how utterly reckless and unscrupulous this 
charge against the Supreme Court, President Pierce, President 
Buchanan, and myself is. Lincoln says that President Buchanan 
was in the conspiracy at Washington in the winter of 1854, when the 
Nebraska bill was introduced. The history of this country shows that 
James Buchanan was at that time representing this country at the 
Court of St. James, Great Britain, with distinguished ability and 
usefulness, that he had not been in the United States for nearly a 
year previous, and that he did not retiu'n until about three years 
after. Yet Mr. Lincoln keeps repeating this charge of conspii-acy 
against Mr. Buchanan when the public records prove it to be untrue. 
Having proved it to be false as far as the Supreme Court and Presi- 
dent Buchanan are concerned, I drop it, leaving the public to say 
whether I, by myself, without their concurrence, could have gone into 
a conspiracy with them. My friends, you see that the object clearly 
is to conduct the canvass on personal matters, and hunt me down 
with charges that are proven to be false by the public records of the 
country. I am willing to throw open mj^ whole public and private 
life to the inspection of any man, or all men who desu*e to investigate 
it. Having resided among you twenty-five years, during nearly the 
whole of which time a public man, exposed to more assaults, perhaps 
more abuse, than any man living of my age, or who ever did live, and 
having survived it all and still commanded your confidence, I am 
willing to trust to your knowledge of me and my public conduct 
without making any more defense against these assaults. 

Fellow-citizens, I came here for the purpose of discussing the 
leading political topics which now agitate the country. I have no 
charges to make against Mr. Lincoln, none against Mr. Trumbull, 
and none against any man who is a candidate, except in repelling 



398 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

theii* assaults upon me. If Mr. Lincoln is a man of bad character, I 
leave you to find it out; if his votes in the past are not satisfactory, 
I leave others to ascertain the fact ; if his course on the Mexican war 
was not in accordance with your notions of patriotism and fidelity to 
our own country as against a public enemy, I leave you to ascertain 
the fact. I have no assaults to make upon him, except to trace his 
course on the questions that now divide the country and engross so 
much of the people's attention. 

You know that prior to 1854 this countrj' was divided into two 
great political parties, one the Whig, the other the Democratic. I, 
as a Democrat for twenty years prior to that time, had been in 
public discussions in this State as an advocate of Democratic prin- 
ciples, and I can appeal with confidence to every old-line Whig within 
the hearing of my voice to bear testimony that during all that period 
I fought you Whigs like a man on every question that separated the 
two parties. I had the highest respect for Henry Clay as a gallant 
party-leader, as an eminent statesman, and as one of the bright orna- 
ments of this country ; but I conscientiously believed that the Demo- 
cratic party was right on the questions which separated the Democrats 
from the Whigs. The man does not live who can say that I ever 
personally assailed Henry Clay or Daniel Webster, or any one of the 
leaders of that great party, whilst I combated with all my energy the 
measures they advocated. What did we differ about in those days ? 
Did Whigs and Democrats differ about this slavery question? On 
the contrary, did we not, in 1850, unite to a man in favor of that 
system of compromise measures which Mr. Clay introduced, Web- 
ster defended, Cass supported, and Fillmore approved and made the 
law of the land by his signature. While we agi'eed on these com- 
promise measures, we differed about a bank, the tariff, distribution, 
the specie circular, the subtreasury, and other qtiestions of that 
description. Now, let me ask you, which one of those questions on 
which Whigs and Democrats then differed now remains to divide 
the two great parties! Every one of those questions which divided 
Whigs and Democrats has passed away; the country has outgrown 
them ; they have passed into history. Hence it is immaterial whether 
you were right or I Avas right on the bank, the subtreasury, and 
other questions, because they no longer continue living issues. 
What, then, has taken the place of those questions about which we 
once differed? The slavery question has now become the leading 
and controlling issue; that question on which you and I agreed, on 
which the Whigs and Democrats united, has now become the lead- 
ing issue between the National Democracy on the one side, and the 
Republican or Abolition party on the other. 

Just recollect for a moment the memorable contest of 1850, when 
this country was agitated from its center to its circumference by the 
slavery agitation. All eyes in this nation were then turned to the 
three great lights that survived the days of the Revolution. They 
looked to Clay, then in retirement at Ashland, and to Webster and 
Cass in the United States Senate. Clay had retired to Ashland, 
having, as he supposed, performed his mission od earth, and was pre- 
paring himself for a better sphere of existence in another world. In 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 399 

that retirement he heard the discordant, harsh, and grating sounds 
of sectional strife and disunion; and he aroused and came forth and 
resumed his seat in the Senate, that great theater of his great deeds. 
From the moment that Clay arrived among us he became the leader 
of all the Union men, whether Whigs or Democrats. For nine months 
we each assembled, each day, in the council-chamber, Clay in the 
chair, with Cass upon his right hand and Webster upon his left, and 
the Democrats and Whigs gathered around, forgetting differences, 
and only animated by one common patriotic sentiment, to devise 
means and measures by which we could defeat the mad and revolu- 
tionary scheme of the Northern Abolitionists and Southern disunion- 
ists. We did devise those means. Clay brought them forward, Cass 
advocated them, the Union Democrats and Union Whigs voted for 
them, Fillmore signed them, and they gave peace and quiet to the 
country. Those compromise measures of 1850 were founded upon 
the great fundamental principle that the people of each State and 
each Territory ought to be left free to form and regulate their own 
domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Federal 
Constitution. 

I will ask every old-line Democrat and every old-line Whig within 
the hearing of my voice, if I have not truly stated the issues as they 
then presented themselves to the country. You recollect that the 
Abolitionists raised a howl of indignation, and cried for vengeance 
and the destruction of Democrats and Whigs both who supported 
those compromise measures of 1850. When I returned home to 
Chicago, I found the citizens inflamed and infuriated against the 
authors of those great measures. Being the only man in that city 
who was held responsible for affirmative votes on all those measures, 
I came forward and addressed the assembled inhabitants, defended 
each and every one of Clay's compromise measures as they passed 
the Senate and the House and were approved by President Fillmore. 
Previous to that time, the city council had passed resolutions nullify- 
ing the act of Congress, and instructing the police to withhold all 
assistance from its execution ; but the people of Chicago listened to 
my defense, and like candid, frank, conscientious men, when they 
became convinced that they had done an injustice to Clay, Webster, 
Cass, and all of us who had supported those measures, they repealed 
their nullifying resolutions and declared that the laws should be 
executed and the supremacy of the Constitution maintained. Let it 
always be recorded in history, to the immortal honor of the people 
of Chicago, that they returned to their duty when they found that 
they were wrong, and did justice to those whom they had blamed 
and abused unjustly. When the legislatui'e of this State assembled 
that year, they proceeded to pass resolutions approving the com- 
promise measures of 1850. When the Whig party assembled in 
1852 at Baltimore in national convention for the last time, to nom- 
inate Scott for the presidency, they adopted as a part of their plat- 
form the compromise measures of 1850 as the cardinal plank upon 
which eveiy Whig would stand and by which he would regulate his 
future conduct. When the Democratic party assembled at the same 
place, one month after, to nominate General Pierce, we adopted the 



400 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

same platform so far as those compromise measures were concerned, 
agreeing that we would staud by those glorious measures as a car- 
dinal article in the Democratic faith. Thus you see that in 1852 all 
the Old Whigs and all the old Democrats stood on a common plank 
so far as this slavery question was concerned, differing on other 
questions. 

Now, let me ask, how is it that since that time so many of you 
Whigs have wandered from the true path marked out by Clay and 
carried out broad and wide by the great Webster ! How is it that 
so many old-line Democrats have abandoned the old faith of their 
party, and joined with Abolitionism and Free-soilism to overturn the 
platform of the old Democrats, and the platform of the Old Whi^s? 
You cannot deny that since 1854 there has been a great revolution 
on this one question. How has it been brought about? I answer 
that no sooner was the sod grown green over the grave of the im- 
mortal Clay, no sooner was the rose planted on the tomb of the god- 
like Webster, than many of the leaders of the Whig party, such as 
Seward, of New York, and his followers, led off and attempted to 
Abolitionize the Whig party, and transfer all your Old Whigs, bound 
hand and foot, into the Abolition camp. Seizing hold of the tem- 
porary excitement produced in this country by the introduction of 
the Nebraska bill, the disappointed politicians in the Democratic 
party united with the disappointed politicians in the Whig party, 
and endeavored to form a new party composed of all the Aboli- 
tionists, of Abolitionized Democrats and Abolitionized Whigs, 
banded together in an Abolition platform. 

And who led that crusade against national principles in this State? 
I answer, Abraham Lincoln on behaK of the Whigs, and Lyman 
Trumbull on behalf of the Democrats, formed a scheme by which 
they would Abolitionize the two great parties in this State on condi- 
tion that Lincoln should be sent to the United States Senate in place 
of General Shields, and that Trumbull should go to Congress from 
the Belleville district, until I would be accommodating enough either 
to die or resign for his benefit, and then he was to go to the Senate 
in my place. You all remember that during the year 1854 these two 
worthy gentlemen, Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Trumbull, one an old-line 
Whig and the other an old-line Democrat, were hunting in partner- 
ship to elect a legislature against the Democratic party. I can- 
vassed the State that year from the time I returned home until the 
election came off, and spoke in every county that I could reach during 
that period. In the northern part of the State I found Lincoln's ally, 
in the person of Fred Douglass, the negro, preaching Abolition doc- 
trines, while Lincoln was discussing the same principles down here, 
and Trumbull, a little further down, was advocating the election of 
members to the legislature who would act in concert with Lincoln's 
and Fred Douglass's friends. I witnessed an effort made at Chicago 
by Lincoln's then associates, and now supporters, to put Fred 
Douglass, the negro, on the stand at a Democratic meeting, to reply 
to the illustrious General Cass when he was addressing the people 
there. They had the same negro hunting me down, and they now 
have a negro traversing the northern counties of the State, and 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 401 

speaking iu behalf of Liucolu. Lincolu kuows that when we were 
at Freeport in joint discussion, there was a distinguished colored 
friend of his there then who was on the stump for him, and who 
made a speech there the night before we spoke, aud another the 
night after, a short distance from Freeport, in favor of Lincoln ; and 
in order to show how much interest the colored brethren felt in the 
success of their brother Abe, I have with me here, and would read 
it if it would not occupy too much of my time, a speech nuide by 
Fred Douglass iu Poughkeepsie, N. Y., a short time since, to a large 
convention, in which he conjures all the friends of negro equality 
and neo'ro citizenship to rally as one man around Abraham Lincoln, 
the perfect embodiment of their principles, and by all means to defeat 
Stephen A. Donglas. Thus you find that this Republican party in the 
northern part of the State had colored gentlemen for their advocates 
in 1854, in company with Lincoln and Trumbull, as they have now. 
When, in October, 1854, I went down to Springfield to attend the 
State fair, I found the leaders of this party all assembled together 
under the title of an anti-Nebraska meeting. It was Black Republi- 
can up north, and anti-Nebraska at Springfield. I found Love- 
joy, a high priest of Abolitionism, and Lincoln, one of the leaders 
who was towing the old-line Whigs into the Abolition camp, and 
Trumbull, Sidney Breese, and Governor Reynolds, all making 
speeches against the Democratic party and myself, at the same 
place and in the same cause. 

The same men who are now fighting the Democratic party and the 
regular Democratic nominees in this State were fighting us then. 
They did not then acknowledge that they had become Abolitionists, 
and many of them deny it now. Breese, Dougherty, and Reynolds 
were then fighting the'Democracy under the title of anti-Nebraska 
men, and now they are fighting the Democracy under the pretense 
that they are simon-pure Democrats, saying that they are authorized 
to have every office-holder in Illinois beheaded who prefers the elec- 
tion of Doiiglas to that of Lincolu, or the success of the Democratic 
ticket in preference to the Abolition ticket for members of Congress, 
State officers, members of the legislature, or any office in the State. 
They canvassed the State against us in 1854, as they are doing now, 
owning different names and different principles in different locali- 
ties, but having a common object in view, viz. : the defeat of all men 
holding national principles in opposition to this sectional Abolition 
party. They carried the legislature in 1854, and when it assembled 
in Springfield they proceeded to elect a United States senator, all 
voting for Lincoln with one or two exceptions, which exceptions 
prevented them from quite electing him. And why should they not 
elect him? Had not Trumbull agreed that Lincoln should have 
Shields's place ! Had not the Abolitionists agreed to it ? Was it 
not the solemn compact the condition on which Lincoln agreed to 
Abolitionize the Old Whigs, that he should be senator ? Still, Trum- 
bull, having control of afew Abolitionized Democrats, would not allow 
them all to vote for Lincoln on any one baUot, and thus kept him 
for some time within one or two votes of an election, until he worried 
out Lincoln's fi-iends, and compelled them to drop him and elect 
Vol. I.— 26. 



402 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Trumbull in violation of the bargain. I desire to read you a piece 
of testimony in confirmation of the notoriously public facts which I 
have stated to you. Colonel James H. Matheny, of Springfield, is, 
and for twenty years has been, the confidential personal and politi- 
cal friend and manager of Mr. Lincoln. Matheny is this very day 
the candidate of the Republican or Abolition party for Congress 
against the gallant Major Thomas L. Harris, in the Springfield dis- 
trict, and is making speeches for Lincoln and against me. I will 
read you the testimony of Matheny about this bargain between Lin- 
coln and Trumbull when they undertook to Abolitionize Whigs and 
Democrats only four years ago. Matheny, being mad at Trumbull for 
having played a Yankee trick on Lincoln, exposed the bargain in a 
public speech two years ago, and I will read the published report of 
that speech, the correctness of which Mr. Lincoln will not deny : 

The Whigs, Abolitionists, Know-nothings, and renegade Democrats 
made a solemn compact for the pm-pose of carrying this State against the 
Democracy on this plan : First, that they would all combine and elect Mr. 
Trumbull to Congress, and thereby carry his district for the legislature, 
in order to tlu-ow all the strength that could be obtained into that body 
against the Democrats. Second, that when the legislature should meet, the 
officers of that body, such as speaker, clerks, doorkeepers, etc., would be 
given to the Abolitionists; and, third, that the Whigs were to have the 
United States senator. That, accordingly, in good faith Trumbull was 
elected to Congress, and his district carried for the legislature, and when it 
convened the Abolitionists got aU the officers of that body, and thus far the 
" bond" was fairly executed. The Whigs, on their part, demanded the elec- 
tion of Abraham Lincoln to the United States Senate, that the bond might 
be fulfilled, the other parties to the contract having already secured to them- 
selves all that was called for. But, in the most perfidious manner, they re- 
fused to elect Mr, Lincoln; and the mean, low-Uved, sneaking Trumbull 
succeeded, by pledging aU that was required by any party, in tlu'usting Lin- 
coln aside and foisting himself, an excrescence from the rotten bowels of 
the Democracy, into the United States Senate ; and thus it has ever been, 
that an honest man makes a bad bargain when he conspires or contracts 
with rogues. 

Lincoln's confidential friend, Matheny, thought that Lincoln made 
a bad bargain when he conspired with such rogues as Trumbull and the 
Abolitionists. I would like to know whether Lincoln had as high an 
opinion of Trumbull's veracity when the latter agreed to support him 
for the Senate, and then cheated him, as he has now, when Trumbull 
comes forward and makes charges against me. You could not then 
prove Trumbull an honest man either by Lincoln, by Matheny, or by 
any of Lincoln's friends. They charged everywhere that Trumbull 
had cheated them out of the bargain, and Lincoln found, sure enough, 
that it was a bad bargain to contract and conspire with rogues. 

And now I will explain to you what has been a mystery all over 
the State and Union, the reason why Lincoln was nominated for the 
United States Senate by the Black Republican convention. You 
know it has never been usual for any party, or any convention, to 
nominate a candidate for United States senator. Probably this was 
the first time that such a thing was ever done. The Black Republi- 
can convention had not been called for that purpose, but to nominate 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 403 

a State ticket, and every man was surprised and many disgusted 
when Lincoln was nominated. Archie Williams thought he was en- 
titled to it, Browning knew that he deserved it, Wentworth was cer- 
tain that he would get it, Peck had hopes, Judd felt sui-e that he was 
the man, and Palmer had claims and had made arrangements to 
secure it ; but, to their utter amazement, Lincoln was nominated by 
the convention, and not only that, but he received the nomination 
unanimously, by a resolution declaring that Abraham Lincoln was 
" the first, last, and only choice " of the Republican party. How did 
this occur ! Why, because they could not get Lincoln's friends to 
make another bargain with '' rogues," unless the whole party would 
come up as one man and pledge their honor that they would stand 
by Lincoln first, last, and all the time, and that he should not be 
cheated by Lovejoy this time, as he was by Trumbull before. Thus, 
by passing this resolution, the Abolitionists are all for him, Lovejoy 
and Farnsworth are canvassing for him, Giddings is ready to come 
here in his behalf, and the negro speakers are already on the stump 
for him, and he is sure not to be cheated this time. He Avould not go 
into the arrangement until he got their bond for it, and Trumbull is 
compelled now to take the stump, get up false charges against me, 
and travel all over the State to try and elect Lincoln, in order to ke«>p 
Lincoln's friends quiet about the bargain in which Trumbull cheated 
them four years ago. You see now why it is that Lincoln and 
Trumbull are so mighty fond of each other. They have entered into 
a conspirac.y to break me down by these assaults on my public char- 
acter, in order to draw my attention from a fair exposure of the mode 
in which they attempted to Abolitionize the Old Whig and the old 
Democratic parties and lead them captive into the Abolition camp. 
Do you not all remember that Lincoln went around here four years 
ago making speeches to you, and telling that you should all go for 
the Abolition ticket, and swearing that he was as good a Whig as he 
ever was ; and that Trumbull went all over the State making pledges 
to the old Democrats, and trying to coax them into the Abolition 
camp, swearing by his Maker, with the uplifted hand, that he was 
still a Democrat, always intended to be, and that never would he de- 
sert the Democratic party. He got your votes to elect an Abolition 
legislature, which passed Abolition resolutions, attempted to pass 
Abolition laws, and sustained Abolitionists for office. State and na- 
tional. Now, the same game is attempted to be played over again. 
Then Lincoln and Trumbull made captives of the Old Whigs and old 
Democrats and carried them into the Abolition camp, where Father 
Giddings, the high priest of Abolitionism, received and christened 
them in the dark cause just as fast as they were brought in. Gid- 
dings found the converts so numerous that he had to have assistance, 
and he sent for John P. Hale, N. P. Banks, Chase, and other Aboli- 
tionists, and they came on, and with Lovejoy and Fred Douglass, 
the negro, helped to baptize these new converts as Lincoln, Trumbull, 
Breese, Reynolds, and Dougherty could capture them and bring them 
within the Abolition clutch. 'Gentlemen, they are now around 
making the same kind of speeches. Trumbull was down in Monroe 
County the other day assailing me, and making a speech in favor of 



404 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Lincoln, and I will show you under what notice his meeting was 
called. You see these people are Black Republicans or Abolitionists 
up north, while at Spriugfield to-day they dare not call their conven- 
tion " Republican/' biit are obliged to say " a convention of all men 
opposed to the Democratic party," and in Monroe County and lower 
Egypt Trumbull advertises their meetings as follows: 

A meeting of the Free Democracy will take place at Waterloo, on Mon- 
day, September 12th inst., whereat Hon. Lyman Trumbull, Hon. Jehu 
Baker, and others, will addi*ess the people upon the different pohtical topics 
of the day. JNIembers of all parties are cordially iavited to be present, and 
hear and determine for themselves. 

September 9, 1858. The Free Democracy. 

Did you ever before hear of this new party called the "Free 
Democracy"? 

What object have these Black Republicans in changing their 
name in every county? They have one name in the north, another 
in the center, and another in the south. When I used to practise 
law before my distinguished judicial friend whom I recognize in the 
crowd before me, if a man was charged with horse-stealing, and the 
proof showed that he went by one name in Stephenson County, 
another in Sangamon, a third in Monroe, and a fourth in Randolph, 
we thought that the fact of his changing his name so often to avoid 
detection was pretty strong evidence of his guilt. I would like to 
know why it is that this great Free-soil Abolition party is not willing 
to avow the same name in all parts of the State? If this part}' 
believes that its course is just, why does it not avow the same prin- 
ciples in the north and in the south, in the east and in the west, 
wherever the American flag waves over American soil ? [A voice : 
"The party does not call itself Black Republican in the north."] 
Sir, if you will get a copy of the paper published at Waukegan, 
fifty miles from Chicago, which advocates the election of Mr. Lin- 
coln, and has his name flj'ing at its masthead, you will find that it 
declares that " this paper is devoted to the cause " of Black Repub- 
licanism. I had a copy of it, and intended to bring it down here into 
Egj'pt to let you see what name the party rallied under up in the 
northern part of the State, and to convince you that their principles 
are as different in the two sections of the State as is their name. I 
am sorry I have mislaid it and have not got it here. Their princi- 
ples in the north are jet-black, in the center they are in color a decent 
mulatto, and in lower Eg^'pt they are almost white. Why, I ad- 
mired man 5^ of the white sentiments contained in Lincoln's speech 
at Jonesboro, and could not help but contrast them with the speeches 
of the same distinguished orator made in the northern part of the 
State. Down here he denies that the Black Republican party is 
opposed to the admission of any more slave States, under any cir- 
cumstances, and says that they are willing to allow the people of each 
State, when it wants to come into the Union, to do jnst as it pleases 
on the question of slavery. In the north you find Lovejoy, their 
candidate for Congress in the Bloomington district; Farusworth, 
their candidate in the Chicago district ; and Washburne, their candi- 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 405 

date in the G-aleiia district, all declaring that never will they consent 
under any circumstances to admit another slave State, even if the 
people want it. Thus, while they avow one set of principles up there, 
they avow another and entirely different set down here. And here 
let me recall to Mr. Lincoln the scriptural quotation wliich he has 
applied to the Federal Government, that a house divided against 
itself cannot stand, and ask him how does he expect this Abolition 
party to stand when in one half of the State it advocates a set of 
principles which it has repudiated in the other half ? 

I am told that I have but eight minutes more. I would like to 
talk to you an hour and a half longer, but I will make the best use 
I can of the remaining eight minutes. Mr. Lincoln said in his first 
remarks that he was not in favor of the social and political equality 
of the negro with the white man. Everywhere up north he has de- 
clared that he was not in favor of the social and political equality 
of the negro, but he would not say whether or not he was opposed 
to negroes voting and negro citizenship. I want to know whether he 
is for or against negro citizenship ? He declared his utter opposition 
to the Dred Scott decision, and advanced as a reason that the court 
had decided that it was not possible for a negro to be a citizen under 
the Constitution of the United States. If he is opposed to the Dred 
Scott decision for that reason, he must be in favor of conferring the 
right and privilege of citizenship upon the negro. I have been try- 
ing to get an answer from him on that point, but have never yet 
obtained one, and I will show you why. In every speech he made in 
the north he quoted the Declaration of Independence to prove that 
all men were created equal, and insisted that the phrase ''all men" 
included the negro as well as the white man, and that the equality 
rested upon divine law. Here is what he said on that point : 

I should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence, 
wliich declares that all men are equal upon principle, and making excep- 
tions to it, where will it stop ? If one man says it does not mean a negi'o, 
why may not another say it does not mean some other man ? If that 
Declaration is not the truth, let us get the statute-book in which we find it 
and tear it out. 

Lincoln maintains there that the Declaration of Independence as- 
serts that the negro is equal to the white man, and that under divine 
law; and if he believes so it was rational for him to advocate negro 
citizenship, wliich, when allowed, puts the negro on an equality under 
the law. I say to you in all frankness, gentlemen, that in my opinion 
a negro is not a citizen, cannot be, and ought not to be, under the 
Constitution of the United States. I will not even qualify my opin- 
ion to meet the declaration of one of the judges of the Supreme Court 
in the Dred Scott case, " that a negro descended from African pa- 
rents, who was imported into this country as a slave, is not a citizen, 
and cannot be." I say that this government was established on the 
white basis. It was made by white men, for the benefit of white men 
and their posterity forever, and never should be administered by any 
except white men. I declare that a negro ought not to be a citizen, 
whether his parents were imported into this country as slaves or not, 



406 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

or whether or not he was boru here. It does not depend upon the 
place a negro's parents were born, or whether they were slaves or 
not, but upon the fact that he is a negro, belonging to a race inca- 
pable of self-government, and for that reason ought not to be on an 
equality with white men. 

My friends, I am sorry that I have not time to pursue this argu- 
ment further, as I might have done but for the fact that Mr. Lincoln 
compelled me to occupy a portion of my time in repelling those gross 
slanders and falsehoods that Trumbull has invented against me and 
put in circulation. In conclusion, let me ask you why should this 
government be divided by a geographical line — arraying all men 
North in one great hostile party against all men South ? Mr. Lin- 
coln tells you, in his speech at Springfield, that a house divided 
against itself cannot stand ; that this government, divided into free 
and slave States, cannot endure permanently; that they must either 
be all free or all slave, all one thing or all the other. Why cannot 
this government endure divided into free States and slave States, as 
our fathers made it ? 

When this government was established by Washington, Jefferson, 
Madison, J a}", Hamilton, Franklin, and the other sages and patriots 
of that day, it was composed of free States and slave States, bound 
together by one common Constitution. We have existed and pros- 
pered from that day to this thus divided, and have increased with a 
rapidity never before equaled in wealth, the extension of territory, 
and all the elements of power and greatness, until we have become 
the first nation on the face of the globe. Why can we not thus con- 
tinue to prosper? We can if we will live up to and execute the 
government upon those principles upon which our fathers estab- 
lished it. During the whole period of our existence Divine Provi- 
dence has smiled upon us, and showered upon our nation richer and 
more abundant blessings than have ever been conferred upon any 
other. 

Mr. Lincoln's Rejoinder in the Charleston Joint Debate. 

Fellow-citizens : It follows as a matter of course that a half -hour 
answer to a speech of an hour and a half can be but a very hurried 
one. I shall only be able to touch upon a few of the points sug- 
gested by Judge Douglas, and give them a brief attention, while I 
shall have to totally omit others for the want of time. 

Judge Douglas has said to you that he has not been able to get 
from me an answer to the question whether I am in favor of ne^ro 
citizenship. So far as I know, the judge never asked me the question 
before. He shall have no occasion to ever ask it again, for I teU 
him very frankly that I am not in favor of negro citizenship. This 
furnishes me an occasion for saying a few words upon the subject. 
I mentioned in a certain speech of mine, which has been printed, that 
the Supreme Court had decided that a negro could not possibly be 
made a citizen, and without saying what was my ground of com- 
plaint in regard to that, or whether I had any ground of complaint, 
Judge Douglas has from that thing manufactured nearly every- 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 407 

thing that he ever says about my disposition to produce an equality 
between the negi'oes and the white people. If any one will read my 
speech, he will find I mentioned that as one of the points decided in 
the course of the Supreme Court opinions, but I did not state what 
objection I had to it. But Judge Douglas tells the people what my 
objection was when I did not tell them myself. Now my opinion is 
that the different States have the power to make a negro a citizen 
under the Constitution of the United States, if they choose. The 
Dred Scott decision decides that they have not that power. If the 
State of Illinois had that power, I should be opposed to the exercise 
of it. That is all I have to say about it. 

Judge Douglas has told me that he heard my speeches north and 
my speeches south — that he had heard me at Ottawa and at Free- 
port in the north, and recently at Jonesboro in the south, and there 
was a very different cast of sentiment in the speeches made at the 
different points. I will not charge upon Judge Douglas that he 
wilfully misrepresents me, but I call upon every fair-minded man 
to take these speeches and read them, and I dare him to point out 
any difference between my speeches north and south. While I am 
here perhaps I ought to say a word, if I have the time, in regard to 
the latter portion of the judge's speech, which was a sort of decla- 
mation in reference to my having said I entertained the belief that 
this government would not endure half slave and half free. I have 
said so, and I did not say it without what seemed to me to be good 
reasons. It perhaps would require more time than I have now to set 
forth these reasons in detail ; but let me ask you a few questions. 
Have we ever had any peace on this slavery question ? When are we 
to have peace upon it if it is kept in the position it now occupies ? 
How are we ever to have peace upon it ? That is an important ques- 
tion. To be sure, if we will all stop and allow Judge Douglas and his 
friends to march on in their present career until they plant the insti- 
tution all over the nation, here and wherever else our flag waves, and 
we acquiesce in it, there will be peace. But let me ask Judge Doug- 
las how he is going to get the people to do that? They have been 
wraughng over this question for at least forty years. This was the 
cause of the agitation resulting in the Missouri compromise; this 
produced the troubles at the annexation of Texas, in the acquisition 
of the territory acquired in the Mexican war. Again, this was the 
trouble which was quieted by the compromise of 1850, when it was 
settled '^ forever," as both the great political parties declared in their 
national conventions. That " forever" turned out to be just four 
years, when Judge Douglas himself reopened it. 

When is it likely to come to an end! He introduced the Nebraska 
bill in 1854 to put another end to the slavery agitation. He promised 
that it would finish it all up immediately, and he has never made a 
speech since until he got into a quarrel with the President about the 
Lecompton constitution, in which he has not declared that we are 
just at the end of the slavery agitation. But in one speech, I think 
last winter, he did say that he did n't quite see when the end of the 
slavery agitation would come. Now he tells us again that it is all 
over, and the people of Kansas have voted down the Lecompton 



408 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

constitution. How is it over? That was only one of tlie attempts 
at putting an end to the slavery agitation — one of these "final set- 
tlements." Is Kansas in the Union? Has she formed a constitu- 
tion that she is likely to come in under ? Is not the slavery agita- 
tion still an open question in that Territory? Has the voting down 
of that constitution put an end to all the trouble? Is that more likely 
to settle it than every one of these previous attempts to settle the 
slavery agitation? Now, at this day in the history of the world we 
can no more foretell where the end of this slavery agitation will be 
than we can see the end of the world itself. The Nebraska-Kansas 
bill was introduced four years and a half ago, and if the agitation is 
ever to come to an end, we may say we are four years and a half nearer 
the end. So, too, we can say we are four years and a half nearer the 
end of the world; and we can just as clearly see the end of the world 
as we can see the end of this agitation. The Kansas settlement did 
not conclude it. If Kansas should sink to-day, and leave a great 
vacant space in the earth's surface, this vexed question would still 
be among us. I say, then, there is no way of putting an end to the 
slavery agitation amongst us but to put it back upon the basis where 
our fathers placed it, no way but to keep it out of our new Terri- ^ 
tories — to restrict it forever to the old States where it now exists. ^ 
Then the public mind will rest in the belief that it is in the course 
of ultimate extinction. That is one way of putting an end to the 
slavery agitation. 

The other way is for us to surrender and let Judge Douglas and 
his friends have their way and plant slavery over all the States — cease 
speaking of it as in any way a wrong — regard slavery as one of the 
common matters of property, and speak of negroes as we do of our 
horses and cattle. But while it drives on in its state of progress as 
it is now driving, and as it has driven for the last five years, I have 
ventured the opinion, and I say to-day, that we will have no end to 
the slavery agitation until it takes one turn or the other. I do not 
mean that when it takes a turn toward ultimate extinction it will be 
in a day, nor in a year, nor in two years. I do not suppose that in 
the most peaceful way ultimate extinction would occur in less than a ' 
hundred years at least ; but that it will occur in the best way for both 
races, in God's own good time, I have no doubt. But, mj^ friends, I 
have used up more of my time than I intended on this point. 

Now, in regard to this matter about Trumbull and myself having 
made a bargain to sell out the entire Whig and Democratic parties in 
1854, Judge Douglas brings forward no evidence to sustain his 
charge, except the speech Matheny is said to have made in 1856, in 
which he told a cock-and-bull story of that sort, upon the same moral 
principles that Judge Douglas tells it here to-day. This is the simi)le , 
truth. I do not care greatly for the story, but this is the truth of it, 
and I have twice told Judge Douglas to his face, that fi*om beginning 
to end there is not one word of truth in it. I have called upon him 
for the proof, and he does not at all meet me as Trumbull met him 
upon that of wldch we were just talking, by producing the record. 
He did n't bring the record, because there was no record for him to 
bring. When he asks if I am ready to indorse Trumbull's veracity 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 409 

after he has broken a bargain with me, I reply that if Trumbull had 
broken a bargain with me, I would not be likely to indorse his ve- 
racity; but I am ready to indorse his veracity because neither in that 
thing, nor in any other, in all the years that I have known Lyman 
Trumbull, have I known him to fail of his word or tell a falsehood, 
large or small. It is for that reason that I indorse Lyman Trumbull. 

Mr. James Brown [Douglas postmaster] : What does Ford's his- 
tory say about him ? 

Mr. Lincoln : Some gentleman asks me what Ford's history says 
about him. My own recollection is, that Ford speaks of Trumbull 
in very disrespectful terms in several portions of his book, and that 
he talks a great deal worse of Judge Douglas. I refer you, sir, to 
the history for examination. 

Judge Douglas complains at considerable length about a disposi- 
tion on the part of Trumbull and myself to attack him personally. 
I want to attend to that suggestion a moment. I don't want to be 
unjustly accused of dealing illiberally or unfairly with an adversary, 
either in court, or in a political canvass, or anywhere else. I would 
despise myseK if I supposed myself ready to deal less liberally with 
an adversary than I was willing to be treated myself. Judge Doug- 
las, in a general way, without putting it in a dii-ect shape, revives 
the old charge against me in reference to the Mexican war. He does 
not take the responsibility of putting it in a very definite form, but 
makes a generalreference to it. That charge is more than ten years 
old. He complains of Trumbull and myself, because he says we bring 
charges against him one or two years old. He knows, too, that in 
regard to the Mexican war story, the more respectable papers of his 
own party throughout the State have been compelled to take it back 
and acknowledge that it was a lie. 

[Here Mr. Lincoln turned to the crowd on the platform, and select- 
ing Hon. Orlando B. Ficklin, led him forward and said:] 

I do not mean to do anything with Mr. Ficklin, except to present 
his face and tell you that he personally knows it to be a lie ! He 
was a member of Congress at the only time I was in Congress, and 
he knows that whenever there was an attempt to procure a vote 
of mine which would indorse the origin and justice of the war, I 
refused to give such indorsement, and voted against it ; but I never 
voted against the supplies for the army, and he knows, as well as 
Judge Douglas, that whenever a dollar was asked by way of com- 
pensation or otherwise, for the benefit of the soldiers, I gave all the 
votes that Ficklin or Douglas did, and perhaps more. 

Mr. Ficklin : My friends, I wish to say this in reference to the 
matter. Mr. Lincoln and myself are just as good personal friends 
as Judge Douglas and myself. In reference to this Mexican war, 
my recollection is that when Ashmun's resolution [amendment] was 
offered by Mr. Ashmun of Massachusetts, in which he declared that 
the Mexican war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally com- 
menced by the President, — my recollection is that Mr. Lincoln voted 
for that resolution. 

Mr. Lincoln : That is the truth. Now you all remember that was 
a resolution censuring the President for the manner in which the 



410 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

war was begun. You know they have charged that I voted against 
the supplies, by which I starved the soldiers who were out fighting 
the battles of their country. I say that Ficklin knows it is false. 
When that charge was brought forward by the Chicago '' Times," 
the Springfield " Register" [Douglas organ] reminded the "Times" 
that the charge really applied to John Henry ; and I do know that 
John Henry is now making speeches and fiercely battling for Judge 
Douglas. If the judge now says that he offers this as a sort of a set- 
off to what I said to-day in reference to Trumbull's charge, then I 
remind him that he made this charge before I said a word about 
Trumbull's. He brought this forward at Ottawa, the first time we 
met face to face ; and in the opening speech that Judge Douglas 
made, he attacked me in regard to a matter ten years old. Is n't he 
a pretty man to be whining about people making charges against 
him only two years old! 

The judge thinks it is altogether wrong that I should have dwelt 
upon this charge of Trumbull's at all. I gave the apology for doing 
so in my opening speech. Perhaps it did n't fix your attention. I 
said that when Judge Douglas was speaking at places where I spoke 
on the succeeding day, he used very harsh language about this 
charge. Two or three times afterward I said I had confidence in 
Judge Trumbull's veracity and intelligence; and my own opinion 
was, from what I knew of the character of Judge Trumbull, that he 
would vindicate his position, and prove whatever he had stated to 
be true. This I repeated two or three times ; and then I dropped it, 
without saying anything more on the subject for weeks — perhaps 
a month. I passed it by without noticing it at all till I found at 
Jacksonville that Judge Douglas, in the plenitude of his power, is not 
willing to answer Trumbull and let me alone; but he comes out there 
and uses this language: "He should not hereafter occupy his time 
in refuting such charges made by Trumbull, but that Lincoln hav- 
ing indorsed the character of Trumbull for veracity, he should hold 
him [Lincoln] responsible for the slanders." What was Lincoln to 
do ? Did he not do right, when he had the fit opportunity of meet- 
ing Judge Douglas here, to tell him he was ready for the responsi- 
bility ! I ask a candid audience whether in doing thus Judge Douglas 
was not the assailant rather than II Here I meet him face to face, 
and say I am ready to take the responsibility so far as it rests on me. 

Having done so, I ask the attention of this audience to the ques- 
tion whether I have succeeded in sustaining the charge, and whether 
Judge Douglas has at all succeeded in rebutting it. You all heard 
me call upon him to say which of these pieces of e\ddence was a for- 
gery. Does he say that what I present here as a copy of the origi- 
nal Toombs l)ill is a forgery? Does he say that what I present as a 
copy of the bill reported by himself is a forgery? Or what is pre- 
sented as a transcript from the " Griobe," of the quotations from Big- 
ler's speech, is a forgery? Does he say the quotations from his own 
speech are forgeries ? Does he say this transcript from Trumbull's 
speech is a forgery? [" He did n't deny one of them."] I would then 
like to know how it comes about that when each piece of a story is 
true, the whole story turns out false? I take it these people have 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 411 

some sense ; they see plainly that Judge Douglas is playing cuttle- 
fish, a small species of fish that has no mode of defending itself when 
pursued except by throwing out a black fluid, which makes the water 
so dark the enemy cannot see it, and thus it escapes. Is not the judge 
playing the cuttlefish ? 

Now I would ask very special attention to the consideration of 
Judge Douglas's speech at Jacksonville ; and when you shall read his 
speech of to-day, I ask you to watch closely and see which of these 
pieces of testimony, every one of which he says is a forgery, he has 
shown to be such. Not one of them has he shown to be a foi-gery. 
Then I ask the original question, if each of the pieces of testimony 
is true, how is it possible that the whole is a falsehood ? 

In regard to Trumbull's charge that he [Douglas] inserted a provi- 
sion into the bill to prevent the constitution being submitted to the 
people, what was his answer f He comes here and reads from the 
" Congressional Globe " to show that on his motion that provision 
was struck out of the bill. Why, Trumbull has not said it was not 
stricken out, but Trumbull says he [Douglas] put it in, and it is no 
answer to the charge to say he afterward took it out. Both are per- 
haps true. It was in regard to that thing precisely that I told iiim 
he had di'opped the cub. Trumbull shows you by his introdu- 
cing the bill that it was his cub. It is no answer to that assertion to 
call Trumbull a liar merely because he did not specially say that 
Douglas struck it out. Suppose that were the case, does it answer 
Trumbull ? I assert that you [pointing to an individual] are here to- 
day, and you undertake to prove me a liar by showing that you were 
in Mattoon yesterday. I say that j^ou took your hat off your head, 
and you prove me a liar by putting it on your head. That is the 
whole force of Douglas's argument. 

Now, I want to come back to my original question. Trumbull says 
that Judge Douglas had a bill with a provision in it for submitting 
a constitution to be made to a vote of the people of Kansas. Does 
Judge Douglas deny that fact ? Does he deny that the provision 
which TrumbuU reads was put in that bill I Then Trumbull says he 
struck it out. Does he dare to deny that "? He does not, and I have 
the right to repeat the question — why Judge Douglas took it 
out? Bigler has said there was a combination of certain senators, 
among whom he did not include Judge Douglas, by which it was 
agreed that the Kansas biU should have a clause in it not to have 
the constitution formed under it submitted to a vote of the people. 
He did not say that Douglas was among them, but we prove by 
another source that about the same time Douglas comes into the 
Senate with that provision stricken out of the bill. Although Bigler 
cannot say they were aU working in concert, yet it looks very much 
as if the thing was agreed upon and done with a mutual understand- 
ing after the conference; and while we do not know that it was 
absolutely so, yet it looks so probable that we have a right to call 
upon the manVho knows the true reason why it was done, to tell 
what the true reason was. When he will not tell what the true 
reason was, he stands in the attitude of an accused thief who has 
stolen goods in his possession, and when called to account refuses to 



412 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tell where lie got them. Not only is this the evidence, but when he 
comes in with the bill having the provision stricken out, he tells us 
in a speech, not then, but since, that these alterations and modifica- 
tions in the bill had been made by him, in consultation with Toombs, 
the originator of the bill. He tells us the same to-day. He says there 
were certain modifications made in the bill in committee that he did 
not vote for. I ask you to remember while certain amendments were 
made whic^h he disapproved of, but which a majority of the commit- 
tee voted in, he has himself told us that in this particular the altera- 
tions and modifications were made by him upon consultation with 
Toombs. We have his own word that these alterations were made 
by him and not by the committee. 

Now, I ask what is the reason Judge Douglas is so chary about 
coming- to the exact question? What is the reason he will not tell 
you anything about how it was made, by whom it was made, or that 
he remembers it being made at all ? Why does he stand playing upon 
the meaning of words, and quibbling around the edges of the evi- 
dence? It he can explain all this, but leaves it unexplained, I have 
a right to infer that Judge Douglas understood it was the purpose of 
his party, in engineering that bill through, to make a constitution, 
and have Kansas come into the Union with that constitution, without 
its being submitted to a vote of the people. If he will explain his 
action on this question, by giving a better reason for the facts that 
happened than he has done, it wiU be satisfactory. But until he does 
that — until he gives a better or more plausible reason than he has 
offered against the evidence in the case — I suggest to him it will not 
avail him at all that he swells himself up, takes on dignity, and calls 
people liars. Why, sir, there is not a word in Trumbull's speech 
that depends on Trumbull's veracity at all. He has only arrayed 
the evidence and told you what follows as a matter of reasoning. 
There is not a statement in the whole speech that depends on Trum- 
bull's word. If you have ever studied geometry, you remember that 
by a course of reasoning Euclid proves that all the angles in a tri- 
angle are equal to two right angles. Euclid lias shown you how to 
work it out. Now, if you undertake to disprove that proposition, and 
to show that it is erroneous, would you prove it to be false by calling 
Euclid a liar ? They tell me that my time is out, and therefore I close. 

September 25, 1858. — Order for Furniture. 

My old friend Henry Chew, the bearer of this, is in a strait for 
some furniture to commence housekeeping. If any person will fur- 
nish him twenty-five dollars' worth, and he does not pay for it by the 
1st of January next, I will. 

September 25, 1858. A. Lincoln. 

Ubbana, February 16, 1859. 
Hon. a. Lincoln, Springfield, Illinois. 

My dear Friend: I herewith inclose yuiu* order which you gave your 
friend Henry Chew. You will please send me a draft for the same and 
oblige yours, 

S. Little. 



ADDBESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 41S 



[October 1, 1858?] — Fragment. Notes for Speeches. 

But there is a larger issue than the mere question of whethei 
the spread of negro slavery shall or shall not be prohibited by Con- 
gress. That larger issue is stated by the Richmond " Enquirer," a 
Buchanan paper in the South, in the language I now read. It is also 
stated by the New York "Day-book," a Buchanan paper in the North, 
in this language. — And in relation to indigent white children, the 
same Northern paper says. — In support of the Nebraska bill, on its 
first discussion in the Senate, Senator Pettit of Indiana declared the 
equality of men, as asserted in our Declaration of Independence, to 
be a *' self-evident lie." In his numerous speeches now being made 
in Illinois, Senator Douglas regularly argues against the doctrine of 
the equality of men ; and while he does not draw the conclusion that 
the superiors ought to enslave the inferiors, he evidently wishes his 
hearers to draw that conclusion. He shirks the responsibility of 
pulling the house down, but he digs under it that it may fall of its 
own weight. Now, it is impossible to not see that these newspapers 
and senators are laboring at a common object, and in so doing are 
truly representing the controlling sentiment of their party. 

It is equally impossible to not see that that common object is to sub- 
vert, in the public mind, and in practical administration, our old and 
only standard of free government, that " all men are created equal," 
and to substitute for it some different standard. What that substi- 
tute is to be is not difficult to perceive. It is to deny the equality 
of men, and to assert the natural, moral, and religious right of one 
class to enslave another. 

[October 1, 1858?] — Fragment. Notes for Speeches. 

Suppose it is true that the negro is inferior to the white in the 
gifts of nature; is it not the exact reverse of justice that the white 
should for that reason take from the negro any part of the little 
which he has had given him? '^Grive to him that is needy" is the 
Christian rule of charity; but ''Take from him that is needy" is 
the rule of slavery. 

Pro-slavery Theology. 

The sum of pro-slavery theology seems to be this: "Slavery is not 
universally right, nor yet universally wrong; it is better for some 
people to be slaves ; and, in such cases, it is the will of God that 
they be such." 

Certainly there is no contending against the will of God; but still 
there is some difficulty in ascertaining and applying it to particular 
cases. For instance, we will suppose the Rev. Dr. Ross has a slave 
named Sambo, and the question is, "Is it the will of God that Sambo 
shall remain a slave, or be set free ?" The Almighty gives no audible 
answer to the question, and his revelation, the Bible, gives none — 
or at most none but such as admits of a squabble as to its mean- 
ing; no one thinks of asking Sambo's opinion on it. So at last it 



414 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

comes to this, that Dr. Ross is to decide the question ; and while he 
considers it, he sits in the shade, with gloves on his hands, and sub- 
sists on the bread that Sambo is earning in the burning sun. If he 
decides that God wills Sambo to continue a slave, he thereby retains 
his own comfortable position; but if he decides that God wills 
Sambo to be free, he thereby has to walk out of the shade, throw 
off his gloves, and delve for his own bread. Will Dr. Ross be 
actuated by the perfect impartiality which has ever been considered 
most favorable to correct decisions ? 

[October 1, 1858?]— Fragment. Notes for Speeches. 

At Freeport I propounded four distinct interrogations to Judge 
Douglas, all which he assumed to answer. I say he assumed to an- 
swer them ; for he did not very distinctly answer any of them. 

To the first, which is in these words, " If tlie people of Kansas 
shall, by means entirely unobjectionable in all other respects, adopt 
a State constitution, and ask admission into the Union under it, be- 
fore they have the requisite number of inhabitants according to the 
English bill, — some ninety-three thousand, — will you vote to admit 
them?" the judge did not answer "Yes" or "No," "I would" or 
" I would not," nor did he answer in any other such distinct way. 
But he did so answer that I infer he would vote for the admission of 
Kansas in the supposed case stated in the interrogatory — that, other 
objections out of the way, he would vote to admit Kansas before she 
liad the requisite population according to the English bill. I men- 
tion this now to elicit an assurance that I correctly understood the 
judge on this point. 

To my second interrogatory, which is in these words, "Can the 
people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the 
wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from their 
limits, prior to the formation of a State constitution!" the judge 
answers that they can, and he proceeds to show how they can exclude 
it. The how, as he gives it, is b}^ withholding friendly legislation 
and adopting unfriendly legislation. As he thinks, the people still 
can, by doing nothing to help slavery and by a little unfriendly lean- 
ing against it, exclude it from their limits. This is his position. This 
position and the Dred Scott decision are absolutely inconsistent. 
The judge furiously indorses the Dred Scott decision; and that de- 
cision holds that the United States Constitution guarantees to the 
citizens of the United States the right to hold slaves in the Terri- 
tories, and that neither Congress nor a territorial legislature can de- 
stroy or abridge that right. In the teeth of this, where can the judge 
find room for his unfriendly legislation against their right? The 
members of a territorial legislature are sworn to support the Con- 
stitution of the United States. How dare they legislate unfriendlily 
to a right guaranteed by that Constitution? And if they should, 
how quickly would the courts hold their work to be unconstitu- 
tional and void! But doubtless the judge's chief reliance to sustain 
his proposition that the people can exclude slavery, is based upon 
non-action — upon withholding friendly legislation. But can mem- 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEES OF AEEAHAM LINCOLN 415 

bers of a territorial legislature, having sworn to support the United 
States Constitution, conscientiously withhold necessary legislative 
protection to a right guaranteed by that Constitution ? 

Again, will not the courts, without territorial legislation, find a 
remedy for the evasion of a right guaranteed by the United States 
Constitution? It is a maxim of the courts that ''there is no right 
without a remedy." But, as a matter of fact, non-action, both legis- 
lative and judicial, will not exclude slavery from any place. It is 
of record that Dred Scott and his family were held in actual slavery 
in Kansas without any friendl}' legislation or judicial assistance. It 
is well known that other negroes were held in actual slavery at the 
military post in Kansas under precisely the same circumstances. 
This was not only done without any friendly legislation, but in 
direct disregard of the congressional prohibition, — the Missouri Com- 
promise, — then supposed to be valid, thus showing that it requires 
positive law to be both made and executed to keep actual slavery 
out of any Territory where any owner chooses to take it. Slavery- 
having actually gone into a Territory to some extent, without local 
legislation in its favor, and against congressional prohibition, how 
much more will it go there now that by a judicial decision that 
congressional prohibition is swept away, and the constitutional guar- 
anty of property declared to apply to slavery in the Territories. 

But this is not all. Slavery was originally planted on this conti- 
nent without the aid of friendly legislation. History proves this. 
After it was actually in existence to a sufficient extent to become, 
in some sort, a public interest, it began to receive legislative atten- 
tion, but not before. How futile, then, is the proposition that the 
people of a Teri'itory can exclude slaveiy by simply not legislating 
in its favor. Learned disputants use what they call the argumenfum 
ad hominem — a course of argument which does not intrinsically reach 
the issue, but merely turns the adversary against himself. There 
are at least two arguments of this sort which may easily be turned 
against Judge Douglas's proposition that the people of a Territory 
can lawfully exclude slavery from their limits prior to forming a 
State constitution. In his report of the 12th of March, 1856, on 
page 28, Judge Douglas says : " The sovereignty of a Territory 
remains in abeyance, suspended in the United States, in trust for 
the people, until they shall be admitted into the Union as a State." 
If so, — if they have no active living sovereignty, — how can they 
readily enact the judge's unfriendly legislation to slavery ? 

But in 1856, on the floor of the Senate, Judge Trumbull asked 
Judge Douglas the direct question, " Can the people of a Territory 
exclude slavery prior to forming a State constitution ?" — and Judge 
Douglas answered, " That is a question for the Supreme Court." I 
think he made the same answer to the same question more than 
once. But now, when the Supreme Court has decided that the peo- 
ple of a Territory cannot so exclude slavery, Judge Douglas shifts 
his ground, saying the people can exclude it, and thus virtually 
saying it is not a question for the Supreme Court. 

I am aware Judge Douglas avoids admitting in direct terms that 
the Supreme Court have decided against the power of the people of 



416 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

a Territory to exclude slavery. He also avoids saying dii-ectly that 
they have not so decided ; but he labors to leave the impression that 
he thinks they have not so decided. For instance, in his Springfield 
speech of July 17, 1858, Judge Douglas, speaking of me, says: ''He 
infers that it [the court] would decide that the territorial legislatures 
could not prohibit slavery. I will not stop to inquire whether the 
courts will carry the decision that far or not." The coiu't has already 
carried the decision exactly that far, and I must say I think Judge 
Douglas very well knows it has. After stating that CougTcss cannot 
prohibit slavery in the Territories, the court adds : "And if Congress 
itself cannot do this, if it be beyond the powers conferred on the 
Federal Government, it will be admitted, we presume, that it could 
not authorize a territorial government to exercise them, it could 
confer no power on any local government, established by its author- 
ity, to violate the provisions of the Constitution." 

Can any mortal man misunderstand this language ? Does not 
Judge Douglas equivocate when he pretends not to know that the 
Supreme Court has decided that the people of a Territory cannot 
exclude slavery prior to forming a State constitution ? 

My third interrogatory to the judge is in these words : "If the Su- 
preme Court of the United States shall decide that States cannot 
exclude slavery from their limits, are you in favor of acquiescing in, 
adopting, and following such decision as a rule of political action?" 
To this question the judge gives no answer whatever. He dis- 
poses of it by an attempt to ridicule the idea that the Supreme 
Court will ever make such a decisiou. When Judge Douglas is drawn 
up to a distinct point, there is significance in all he says, and in aU 
he omits to say. In this case he v/ill not, on the one hand, face the 
people and declare he will support such decision when made, nor on 
the other will he trammel himself by saying he will not support it. 

Now I propose to show, in the teeth of Judge Douglas's ridicule, 
that such a decision does logically and necessarily follow the Dred 
Scott decision. In that case the court holds that Congress can legis- 
late for the Territories in some respects, and in others it cannot; 
that it cannot prohibit slavery in the Territories, because to do so 
would infringe the " right of property " guaranteed to the citizen by 
the fifth amendment to the Constitution, which provides that "no 
person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due pro- 
cess of law." Unquestionably there is such a guaranty in the Con- 
stitution, whether or not the court rightfully apply it in this case. 
I propose to show, bej'ond the power of quibble, that that guaranty 
applies with aU the force, if not more, to States that it does to Ter- 
ritories. The answers to two questions fix the whole thing: to 
whom is this guaranty given ? and against whom does it protect 
those to whom it is given? The guaranty makes no distinction be- 
tween persons in the States and those in the Territories ; it is given 
to persons in the States certainly as much as, if not more than, to 
those in the Territories. " No person," under the shadow of the Con- 
stitution, " shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due 
process of law." 

Against whom does this guaranty protect the rights of prop- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 417 

erty? Not against Congress alone, but against the world — against 
State constitutions and laws, as well as against acts of Congress. 
The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land ; this 
guaranty of property is expressly given in that Constitution, in that 
supreme law ; and no State constitution or law can override it. It 
is not a case where power over the subject is reserved to the States, 
because it is not expressly given to the General Government; it is a 
ease where the guaranty is expressly given to the individual citizen, 
in and by the organic law of the General Government ; and the duty 
of maintaining that guaranty is imposed upon that General Govern- 
ment, overriding all obstacles. 

The following is the article of the Constitution containing the 
guaranty of property upon which the Dred Scott decision is based: 

Article V. No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise 
infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment by a gi-aud jury, 
except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia when in 
actual service, in time of war or pubUc danger ; nor shall any person be 
subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of Ufe or limb ; nor 
shall be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself, nor 
be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law ; nor 
shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. 

Suppose, now, a provision in a State constitution should negative 
all the above propositions, declaring dii'ectly or substantially that 
" any person may be deprived of life, liberty, or property without 
due process of law," a direct contradiction — collision — would be 
pronounced between the United States Constitution and such State 
constitution. And can there be any doubt but that which is declared 
to be the supreme law would prevail over the other to the extent of 
the collision ? Such State constitution would be unconstitutional. 

There is no escape from this conclusion but in one way, and that 
is to deny that the Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott case, properly 
applies this constitutional guaranty of property. The Constitution 
itself impliedly admits that a person may be deprived of property by 
''due process of law," and the Republicans hold that if there be a law 
of Congress or territorial legislature telling the slaveholder in ad- 
vance that he shall not bring his slave into the Territory upon pain 
of forfeiture, and he still will bring him, he will be deprived of his 
property in such slave by "due process of law." And the same 
would be true in the case of taking a slave into a State against a 
State constitution or law prohibiting slavery. 

[October 1, 1858?]— Fragment. Notes for Speeches. 

. . . When Douglas ascribes such to me, he does so, not by 
argument, but b^ mere burlesques on the art and name of argument — 
by such fantastic arrangements of words as prove ''horse-chestnuts 
to be chestnut horses." In the main I shall trust an intelligent com- 
munity to learn my objects and aims from what I say and do myself, 
rather than from what Judge Douglas may say of me. But I must not 
leave the judge just yet. When he has burlesqued me into a position 
Vol. I.— 27. 



418 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

which I never thought of assuming myself, he will, in the most 
benevolent and patronizing manner imaginable, compliment me by 
saying ''he has no doubt I am perfectly conscientious in it." I 
thank him for that word "conscientious." It turns my attention 
to the wonderful evidences of conscience he manifests. When he 
assumes to be the first discoverer and sole advocate of the right 
of a people to govern themselves, he is conscientious. When he 
affects to understand that a man, putting a hundred slaves through 
under the lash, is simply governing himself, he is more conscien- 
tious. When he affects not to know that the Dred Scott decision 
forbids a territorial legislature to exclude slavery, he is most con- 
scientious. When, as in his last Springfield speech, he declares that 
I say, unless I shall play my batteries successfully, so as to abolish 
slavery in every one of the States, the Union shall be dissolved, he 
is absolutely bursting with conscience. It is nothing that I have 
never said any such thing. With some men it might make a differ- 
ence; but consciences differ in different individuals. Judge Douglas 
has a greater conscience than most men. It corresponds with his 
other points of greatness. Judge Douglas amuses himself by saying 
I wish to go into the Senate on my qualifications as a prophet. He 
says he has known some other prophets, and does not think very well 
of them. Well, others of us have also known some prophets. We 
know one who nearly five years ago prophesied that the 'Nebraska 
bill' would put an end to slavery agitation in next to no time — 
one who has renewed that prophecy at least as often as quarter- 
yearly ever since ; and still the prophecy has not been fulfilled. That 
one might very well go out of the Senate on his qualifications as a 
false prophet. 

Allow me now, in my own way, to state with what aims and objects 
I did enter upon this campaign. I claim no extraordinary exemption 
from personal ambition. That I like preferment as well as the av- 
erage of men may be admitted. But I protest I have not entered 
upon this hard contest solely, or even chiefly, for a merely personal 
object. I clearly see, as I think, a powerful plot to make slavery 
universal and perpetual in this nation. The effort to carry that 
plot through will be persistent and long continued, extending far 
beyond the senatorial term for which Judge Douglas and I are just 
now struggling. I enter upon the contest to contribute my humble 
and temporary mite in opposition to that effort. 

At the Republican State convention at Spriugfield I made a speech. 
That speech has been considered the opening of the canvass on my 
part. In it I arranged a string of incontestable facts which, I think, 
prove the existence of a conspiracy to nationalize slavery. The 
evidence was circumstantial only ; but nevertheless it seemed incon- 
sistent with every hypothesis, save that of the existence of such con- 
spiracy. I believe the facts can be explained to-day on no other 
hypothesis. Judge Douglas can so explain them if an^ one can. 
From warp to woof his handiwork is everywhere woven in. 

At New York he finds this speech of mine, and devises his plan of 
assault upon it. At Chicago he develops that plan. Passing over, 
unnoticed, the obvious purport of the whole speech, he cooks up two 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 419 

or three issues upon points not discussed by me at all, and then au- 
thoritatively announces that these are to be the issues of the cam- 
paign. Next evening I answer, assuring him that he misunderstands 
me — that he takes issues which I have not tendered. In good faith 
I try to set him right. If he reaUy has misunderstood my meaning, 
I give him language that can no longer be misunderstood. He wiU 
have none of it. At Bloomington, six days later, he speaks again, and 
perverts me even worse than before. He seems to have grown con- 
fident and jubilant, in the belief that he has entirely diverted me 
from my purpose of fixing a conspiracy upon him and his co-workers. 
Next day he speaks again at Springfield, pursuing the same course, 
with increased confidence and recklessness of assertion. At night 
of that day I speak again. I tell him that as he has carefully read 
my speech making the charge of conspiracy, and has twice spoken 
of the speech without noticing the charge, upon his own tacit admis- 
sion I renew the charge against him. I call him, and take a default 
upon him. At Clinton, ten days after, he comes in with a plea. The 
substance of that plea is that he never passed a word with Chief 
Justice Taney as to what his decision was to be in the Dred Scott 
case ; that I ought to know that he who afBrms what he does not 
know to be true falsifies as much as he who afi&i*ms what he does 
know to be false; and that he would pronounce the whole charge of 
conspiracy a falsehood, were it not for his own self-respect! 

Now I demur to this plea. Waiving objection that it was not filed 
till after default, I demur to it on the merits. I say it does not meet 
the case. What if he did not pass a word with Chief Justice Taney! 
Could he not have as distinct an understanding, and play his part 
just as well, without directly passing a word with Taney, as with it? 
But suppose we construe this part of the plea more broadly than he 
puts it himself — suppose we construe it, as in an answer in chancery, 
to be a denial of all knowledge, information, or belief of such con- 
spiracy. Still I have the right to prove the conspiracy, even against 
his answer ; and there is much more than the evidence of two wit- 
nesses to prove it by. Grant that he has no knowledge, information, 
or belief of such conspiracy, and what of it? That does not disturb 
the facts in evidence. It only makes him the dupe, instead of a 
principal, of conspirators. 

What if a man may not affirm a proposition without knowing it 
to be true ? I have not affirmed that a conspiracy does exist. I have 
only stated the evidence, and affirmed my belief in its existence. If 
Judge Douglas shall assert that I do not believe what I say, then 
he affirms what he cannot know to be true, and falls within tne con- 
demnation of his own rule. 

Would it not be much better for him to meet the evidence, and 
show, if he can, that I have no good reason to believe the charge? 
Would not this be far more satisfactory than merely vociferating an 
intimation that he may be provoked to call somebody a liar? 

So far as I know, he denies no fact which I have alleged. With- 
out now repeating all those facts, I recall attention to only a few of 
them. A provision of the Nebraska bill, penned by Judge Douglas, 
is in these words : 



420 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery 
into any Teiritory or State, nor exclude it therefrom, but to leave the peo- 
ple thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions 
in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States. 

In support of this the argument, evidently prepared in advance, 
went forth : '' Why not let the people of a Territory have or exclude 
slaverj', just as they choose? Have they any less sense or less pa- 
triotism when they settle in the Territories than when they lived in 
the States?" 

Now the question occurs: Did Judge Douglas, even then, in- 
tend that the people of a Territory should have the power to ex- 
clude slavery ? If he did, why did he vote against an amendment 
expressly declaring they might exclude it? With men who then 
knew and intended that a Supreme Court decision should soon 
follow, declaring that the people of a Territory could not exclude 
slavery, voting down such an amendment was perfectly rational. 
But with men not expecting or desiring such a decision, and really 
wishing the people to have such power, voting down such an amend- 
ment, to my mind, is wholly inexplicable. 

That such an amendment was voted down by the friends of the 
bill, including Judge Douglas, is a recorded fact of the case. There 
was some real reason for so voting it down. What that reason was. 
Judge Douglas can tell. I believe that reason was to keep the way 
clear for a court decision, then expected to come, and which has 
since come, in the case of Dred Scott. If there was any other reason 
for voting down that amendment, Judge Douglas knows of it and 
can tell it ? Again, in the before-quoted part of the Nebraska bill, 
what means the provision that the people of the ''State" shaU be 
left perfectly free, subject only to the Constitution ? Congress was 
not therein legislating for, or about, States or the people of States. 
In that bill the provision about the people of ''States" is the odd 
half of something, the other half of which was not yet quite ready 
for exhibition. What is that other half to be? Another Supreme 
Court decision, declaring that the people of a State cannot exclude 
slavery, is exactly fitted to be that other half. As the power of the 

Seople of the Territories and of the States is cozily set down in the 
ebraska bill as being the same: so the constitutional limitations 
on that power will then be judicially held to be precisely the same 
in both Territories and States — that is, that the Constitution per- 
mits neither a Territory nor a State to exclude slavery. 

With persons looking forward to such additional decision, the in- 
serting a provision about States in the Nebraska bill was perfectly 
rational ; but to persons not looking for such decision it was a puzzle. 
There was a real reason for inserting such provision. Judge Doug- 
las inserted it, and therefore knows, and can tell, what that real 
reason was. 

Judge Douglas's present course by no means lessens my belief 
in the existence of a purpose to make slavery alike lawfid in all 
the States. This can be done by a Supreme Court decision hold- 
ing that the United States Constitution forbids a State to exclude 
slavery ; and probably it can be done in no other way. The idea of 



ADDBESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 421 

forcing slavery into a free State, or out of a slave State, at the point 
of the bayonet, is alike nonsensical. Slavery can only become ex- 
tinct bv being restricted to its present limits, and dwindling out. It 
can only become national by a Supreme Court decision. To such a 
decision, when it comes, Judge Douglas is fully committed. Such a 
decision acquiesced in by the people effects the whole object. Bearing 
this in mind, look at what Judge Douglas is doing every day. For 
the first sixty-five years under the United States Constitution, the 
practice of government had been to exclude slavery from the new 
free Territories. About the end of that period Congress, by the Ne- 
braska bill, resolved to abandon this practice ; and this was rapidly 
succeeded by a Supreme Court decision holding the practice to have 
always been unconstitutional. Some of us refuse to obey this deci- 
sion as a political rule. ForthAvith Judge Douglas espouses the de- 
cision, and denounces all opposition to it in no measured terms. He 
adheres to it with extraordinary tenacity ; and under rather extra- 
ordinary circumstances. He espouses it not on any opinion of his 
that it is right AA-ithin itself. On this he forbears to commit himself. 
He espouses it exclusively on the ground of its binding authority on 
all citizens — a gi-ound which commits him as fully to the next deci- 
sion as to this. I point out to him that Mr. Jefferson and General 
Jackson were both against him on the binding political authority 
of Supreme Court decisions. No response. I might as well preach 
Christianity to a grizzly bear as to preach Jefferson and Jackson 
to him. 

I tell him I have often heard him denounce the Supreme Court 
decision in favor of a national bank. He denies the accuracy of 
my recollection — which seems strange to me, but I let it pass. 

I remind him that he, even now, indorses the Cincinnati platform, 
which declares that Congress has no constitutional power to charter 
a bank; and that in the teeth of a Supreme Coiu't decision that 
Congi'ess has such power. This he cannot deny; and so he remem- 
bers to forget it. 

I remind him of a piece of Illinois history about Supreme Court 
decisions — of a time when the Supreme Court of Illinois, consisting 
of four judges, because of one decision made, and one expected to be 
made, were overwhelmed by the adding of five new judges to their 
number : that he, Judge Douglas, took a leading part in that onslaught, 
ending in his sitting down on the bench as one of the five added 
judges. I suggest to him that as to his questions how far judges 
have to be catechized in advance, when appointed under such cir- 
cumstances, and how far a court, so constituted, is prostituted 
beneath the contempt of all men, no man is better posted to answer 
than he, having once been entirely through the mill himself. 

Still no response, except ''Hurrah for the Dred Scott decision!" 
These things warrant me in saying that Judge Douglas adheres to 
the Dred Scott decision under rather extraordinary circumstances — 
circumstances suggesting the question, " Why does he adhere to it 
so pertinaciously! Why does he thus belie his whole past life? 
Why, with a long record' more marked for hostility to judicial deci- 
sions than almost any living man, does he cling to this with a devotion 



422 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

that nothing can baffle !" In this age, and this country, public senti- 
ment is everything. With it, nothing can fail ; against it, nothing 
can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he 
who enacts statutes or pronounces judicial decisions. He makes 
possible the enforcement of them, else impossible. 

Judge Douglas is a man of large influence. His bare opinion goes 
far to fix the opinions of others. Besides this, thousands hang their 
hopes upon forcing their opinions to agree with his. It is a party 
necessity with them to say they agree with him, and there is danger 
they will repeat the saying till they really come to believe it. Others 
dread, and shrink from, his denunciations, his sarcasms, and his in- 
genious misrepresentations. The susceptible young hear lessons 
from him, such as their fathers never heard when they were young. 

If, by all these means, he shall succeed in molding public sen- 
timent to a perfect accordance with his own ; in bringing all men 
to indorse all court decisions, without caring to know whether they 
are right or wrong; in bringing all tongues to as perfect a silence 
as his own, as to there being any wrong in slavery ; in bringing all 
to declare, with him, that they care not whether slavery be voted 
down or voted up ; that if any people want slaves they have a right 
to have them ; that negroes are not men; have no part in the Decla- 
ration of Independence ; that there is no moral question about sla- 
very; that liberty and slavery are perfectly consistent — indeed, 
necessary accompaniments ; that for a strong man to declare himself 
the superior of a weak one, and thereupon enslave the weak one, is 
the very essence of liberty, the most sacred right of self-government ; 
when, I say, public sentiment shall be brought to all this, in the 
name of Heaven what barrier will be left against slavery being made 
lawful everywhere ? Can you find one word of his opposed to it ? 
Can you not find many strongly favoring it ? If for his Life, for 
his eternal salvation, he was solely striving for that end, could he 
find any means so well adapted to reach the end ? 

If our presidential election, by a mere plurality, and of doubtfid 
significance, brought one Supreme Court decision that no power 
can exclude slavery from a Territory, how much more shall a pub- 
lic sentiment, in exact accordance with the sentiments of Judge 
Douglas, bring another that no power can exclude it from a State ? 

And then, the negi'o being doomed, and damned, and forgotten, 
to everlasting bondage, is the white man quite certain that the 
tyrant demon will not turn upon him too 1 



[October 1, 1858?] — Fragment. Notes for Speeches. 

From time to time, ever since the Chicago " Times" and " Illinois 
State Register" declared their opposition to the Lecompton consti- 
tution, and it began to be understood that Judge Douglas was also 
opposed to it, I have been accosted by friends of his with the ques- 
tion, "What do you think now?" Since the delivery of his speech 
in the Senate, the question has been varied a little. " Have you read 
Douglas's speech?" "Yes." "Well, what do you think of it I" In 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 423 

every instance the question is accompanied with an anxious inquiring 
stare, which asks, quite as plainly as words could, ^' Can't you go for 
Douglas now?" Like boys who have set a bird-trap, they are 
watching to see if the birds are picking at the bait and likely to go 
under. 

I think, then, Judge Douglas knows that the Republicans wish 
Kansas to be a free State. He knows that they know, if the ques- 
tion be fairly submitted to a vote of the people of Kansas, it will be 
a free State; and he would not object at all if, by drawing their at- 
tention to this particular fact, and himself becoming vociferous for 
such fair vote, they should be induced to drop their own organiza- 
tion, fall into rank behind him, and form a great free-State Demo- 
cratic party. 

But before Republicans do this, I think they ought to require a 
few questions to be answered on the other side. If they so fall in 
with Judge Douglas, and Kansas shall be secured as a free State, 
there then remaining no cause of difference between him and the 
regular Democracy, will not the Republicans stand ready, haltered 
and harnessed, to be handed over by him to the regular Democracy, 
to filibuster indefinitely for additional slave territory, — to carry 
slavery into all the States, as well as Territories, under the Dred 
Scott decision, construed and enlarged from time to time, according 
to the demands of the regular slave Democracy, — and to assist in re- 
viving the African slave-trade in order that all may buy negroes 
where they can be bought cheapest, as a clear iucident of that 
" sacred right of property," now held in some quarters to be above 
all constitutions? 

By so falling in, will we not be committed to or at least compro- 
mitted with, the Nebraska policy? If so, we should remember that 
Kansas is saved, not by that policy or its authors, but in spite of both 
— by an effort that cannot be kept up in future cases. 

Did Judge Douglas help anj- to get a free-State majority into Kan- 
sas ? Not a bit of it — the exact contrary. Does he now express any 
wish that Kansas, or any other place, shall be free ? Nothing like it. 
He tells us, in this very speech, expected to be so palatable to Re- 
publicans, that he cares not whether slavery is voted down or voted 
up. His whole effort is devoted to clearing the ring, and giving 
slavery and freedom a fair fight. With one who considers slavery 
just as good as freedom, this is perfectly natm-al and consistent. 
But have Republicans any sympathy with such a view ? They think 
slavery is wrong; and that, like every other wrong which some men 
will commit if left alone, it ought to be prohibited by law. They 
consider it not only morally wrong, but a "deadly poison" in a 
government like ours, professedly based on the equality of men. 
Upon this radical difference of opinion with Judge Douglas, the 
Republican party was organized. There is all the difference between 
him and them now that there ever was. He will not say that he 
has changed; have you ? 

Again, we ought' to be informed as to Judge Douglas's present 
opinion as to the inclination of Republicans to marry with negroes. 
By his Springfield speech we know what it was last June ; and by his 



424 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

resolution dropped at Jacksonville in September we know what it 
was then. Perhaps we have something even later in a Chicago 
speech, in which the danger of being "stunk out of church" was 
descanted upon. But what is his opinion on the point now ? There 
is, or will be, a sure sign to judge by. If this charge shall be silently 
dropped by the judge and his friends, if no more resolutions on the 
subject shall be passed in Douglas Democratic meetings and con- 
ventious, it will be safe to swear that he is courting. Our "witch- 
ing smile" has "caught his youthful fancy"; and henceforth Cuffy 
and he are rival beaux for our gushing affections. 

We also ought to insist on knowing what the judge now thinks 
on ''Sectionalism." Last year he thought it was a "clincher" 
against us on the question of Sectionalism, that we could get no 
support in the slave States, and could not be allowed to speak, or 
even breathe, south of the Ohio River. In vain did we appeal to 
the justice of our principles. He would have it that the treatment 
we received was conclusive evidence that we deserved it. He and 
his friends would bring speakers from the slave States to their meet- 
ings and conventions in the free States, and parade about, arm in 
arm with them,breathing in every gesture and tone, " How we national 
apples do swim ! " Let him cast about for this particular evidence of 
his own nationality now. Why, just now, he and Fremont would 
make the closest race imaginable in the Southern States. 

In the present aspect of affairs what ought the Republicans to do ? 
I think they ought not to oppose any measure merely because Judge 
Douglas proposes it. Whether the Lecompton constitution should 
be accepted or rejected is a question upon which, in the minds of 
men not committed to any of its antecedents, and controlled only by 
the Federal Constitution, by republican principles, and by a sound 
morality, it seems to me there could not be two opinions. It should 
be throttled and killed as hastily and as heartily as a rabid dog. 
What those should do who are committed to all its antecedents is 
their business, not ours. If, therefore. Judge Douglas's bill secures 
a fair vote to the people of Kansas, without contrivance to commit 
any one farther, I think Republican members of Congress ought to 
support it. They can do so without any inconsistency. They believe 
Congress ought to prohibit slavery wherever it can be done with- 
out violation of the Constitution or of good faith. And having seen 
the noses counted, and actually knowing that a majoritj^ of the 
people of Kansas are against slavery, passing an act to secure them a 
fair vote is little else than prohibiting slavery in Kansas by act of 
Congress. 

Congress cannot dictate a constitution to a new State. AU it can 
do at that point is to secure the people a fair chance to form one for 
themselves, and then to accept or reject it when they ask admission 
into the Union. As I understand, Republicans claim no more than 
this. But they do claim that Congress can and ought to keep 
slavery out of a Territory, up to the time of its people forming a 
State constitution ; and they should now be careful to not stultify 
themselves to any extent on that point. 

I am glad Judge Douglas has, at last, distinctly told us that he 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEBS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 425 

cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up. Not so 
much that this is any news to me ; nor yet that it may be slightly 
new to some of that class of his friends who delight to say that they 
"are as much opposed to slavery as anybody." I am glad because 
it affords such a true and excellent definition of the Nebraska 
policy itself. That policy, honestly administered, is exactly that. 
it seeks to bring the people of the nation to not care anything 
about slavery. This is Nebraskaism in its abstract purity — in its 
very best dress. 

Now, I take it, nearly everybody does care something about sla- 
very — is either for it or against it; and that the statesmanship of 
a measure which conforms to the sentiments of nobody might well 
be doubted in advance. 

But Nebraskaism did not originate as a piece of statesmanship. 
General Cass, in 1848, invented it, as a political manoeuver, to secure 
himself the Democratic nomination for the presidency. It served 
its purpose then, and sunk out of sight. Six years later Judge 
Douglas fished it up, and glozed it over with what he called, and still 
persists in calling, " sacred rights of self-government." 

Well, I, too, believe in self-government as I understand it; but 
I do not understand that the privilege one man takes of making a 
slave of another, or holding him as such, is any part of " self-govern- 
ment." To call it so is, to :my mind, simply absm-d and ridiculous. 
I am for the people of the whole nation doing just as they please 
in all matters which concern the whole nation ; for those of each 
part doing Just as they choose in all matters which concern no other 
part ; and for each individual doing just as he chooses in all mat- 
ters which concern nobody else. This is the principle. Of course 
I am content with any exception which the Constitution, or the 
actually existing state of things, makes a necessity. But neither 
the principle nor the exception wiU admit the indefinite spread and 
perpetuity of human slavery. 

I think the true magnitude of the slavery element in this nation 
is scarcely appreciated by any one. Four years ago the Nebraska 
policy was adopted, professedly, to drive the agitation of the sub- 
ject into the Territories, and out of every other place, and especially 
out of Congress. 

When Mr. Buchanan accepted the presidential nomination, he 
felicitated himself with the belief that the whole thing would be 
quieted and forgotten in about six weeks. In his inaugural, and in 
his Silliman letter, at their respective dates, he was just not quite 
in reach of the same happy consummation. And now, in his first 
annual message, he urges the acceptance of the Lecompton constitu- 
tion (not quite satisfactory to him) on the sole ground of getting 
this little unimportant matter out of the way. 

Meanwhile, in those four years, there has really been more angi*y 
agitation of this subject, both in and out of Congress, than ever 
before. And just now it is perplexing the mighty ones as no sub- 
ject ever did before. Nor is it confined to politics alone. Presby- 
terian assemblies, Methodist conferences. Unitarian gatherings, and 
single churches to an indefinite extent, are wrangling, and cracking, 



426 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and going to pieces on the same question. Why, Kansas is neither 
. / the whole nor a tithe of the real question. 

A house divided against itself cannot stand. 

I believe the government cannot endure permanently half slave 
and half free. I expressed this belief a year ago ; and subsequent 
developments have but confirmed me. I do not expect the Union to 
be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall ; but I do expect it 
will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the 
other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further 
spread of it, and put it in course of ultimate extinction; or its 
advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all 
the States, old as well as new. Do you doubt it ? Study the Dred 
Scott decision, and then see how little even now remains to be done. 
That decision may be reduced to three points. The first is that a 
negro cannot be a citizen. That point is made in order to deprive 
the negro, in every possible event, of the benefit of that provision of 
the United States Constitution which declares that "the citizens 
of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of 
citizens in the several States." 

The second point is that the United States Constitution protects 
slavery, as property, in all the United States territories, and that 
neither Congress, nor the people of the Territories, nor any other 
power, can prohibit it at any time prior to the formation of State 
constitutions. 

This point is made in order that the Territories may safely be 
filled up with slaves, before the formation of State constitutions, 
thereby to embarrass the free-State sentiment, and enhance the 
chances of slave constitutions being adopted. 

The third point decided is that the voluntary bringing of Dred 
Scott into Illinois by his master, and holding him here a long time 
as a slave, did not operate his emancipation — did not make him 
free. 

This point is made, not to be pressed immediately ; but if acqui- 
esced in for a while, then to sustain the logical conclusion that what 
Dred Scott's master might lawfully do with Dred in the free State 
of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one or 
one hundred slaves in Illinois, or in any other free State. Auxiliarj^ 
to all this, and working hand in hand with it, the Nebraska doctrine 
is to educate and mold public opinion to " not care whether slavery 
is voted up or voted down." At least Northern public opinion must 
cease to care anything about it. Southern public opinion may, 
without offense, continue to care as much as it pleases. 

Welcome or unwelcome, agreeable or disagreeable, whether this 
shall be an entire slave nation is the issue before us. Every inci- 
dent — every little shifting of scenes or of actors — only clears away 
the intervening trash, compacts and consolidates the opposing hosts, 
and brings them more and more distinctly face to face. The conflict 
will be a severe one ; and it wiU be fought through by those who do 
care for the result, and not by those who do not care — by those who 
are for, and those who are against, a legalized national slavery. The 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 427 

combined charge of Nebraskaism and Dred-Scottism must be re- 
pulsed and rolled back. The deceitful cloak of " self-government," 
wherewith ''the sum of all villanies" seeks to protect and adorn it- 
self, must be torn from its hateful carcass. That burlesque upon 
judicial decisions, and slander and profanation upon the honored 
names and sacred history of republican America, must be overruled 
and expunged from the books of authority. 

To give the victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful 
ballots only are necessary. Thanks to our good old Constitution, 
and organization under it, these alone are necessary. It only needs 
that every right thinking man shall go to the polls, and without fear 
or prejudice vote as he thinks. 

October 7, 1858. — Fifth Joint Debate, at Galesburg, Illinois. 
Mr. Douglas's Opening Speech. 

Ladies and Oentlemen : Four years ago I appeared before the 
people of Knox County for the purpose of defending my political 
action upon the compromise measures of 1850 and the passage of 
the Kansas-Nebraska bDl. Those of you before me who were 
present then will remember that I vindicated myself for supporting 
those two measures by the fact that they rested upon the great funda- 
mental principle that the people of each State and each Territory of 
this Union have the right, and ought to be permitted to exercise the 
right, of regulating their own domestic concerns in their own way, 
subject to no other limitation or restriction than that which the 
Constitution of the United States imposes upon them. I then called 
upon the people of Illinois to decide whether that principle of self- 
government was right or wrong. If it was and is right, then the 
compromise measures of 1850 were right, and, consequently, the 
Kansas and Nebraska bill, based upon the same principle, must 
necessarily have been right. 

The Kansas and Nebraska bill declared, in so many words, that it 
was the true intent and meaning of the act not to legislate slavery 
into any State or Territory, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave 
the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic 
institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the 
United States. For the last four years I have devoted all my 
energies, in private and public, to commend that principle to the 
American people. Whatever else may be said in condemnation or 
support of my political course, I apprehend that no honest man will 
doubt the fidelity with which under all circumstances I have stood 
by it. 

During the last year a question arose in the Congress of the 
United States whether or not that principle would be violated by 
the admission of Kansas into the Union under the Lecompton con- 
stitution. In my opinion, the attempt to force Kansas in under that 
constitution was a gross violation of the principle enunciated in the 
compromise measures of 1850, and the Kansas and Nebraska bill 
of 1854, and therefore I led off in the fight against the Lecompton 



428 ADDEESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

constitution, and conducted it until the effort to carry that constitu- 
tion through Congress was abandoned. And I can appeal to all 
men, friends and foes, Democrats and Republicans, Northern men and 
Southern men, that during the whole of that fight I carried the ban- 
ner of popular sovereignty aloft, and never allowed it to trail in the 
dust, or lowered my flag until victory perched upon our arms. When 
the Lecompton constitution was defeated, the question arose in the 
minds of those who had advocated it what they should next resort 
to in order to carry out their views. They devised a measure known 
as the English bill, and granted a general amnesty and political par- 
don to all men who had fought against the Lecompton constitution, 
provided they would support that bill. I for one did not choose to 
accept the pardon, or to avail myself of the amnesty granted on that 
condition. The fact that the supporters of Lecompton were willing 
to forgive all differences of opinion at that time, in the event those 
who opposed it favored the English bill, was an admission that they 
did not think that opposition to Lecompton impaired a man's stand- 
ing in the Democratic party. Now the question arises : What was that 
English bill which certain men are now attempting to make a test of 
political orthodoxy in this country. It provided, in substance, that 
the Lecompton constitution should be sent back to the people of 
Kansas for their adoption or rejection, at an election which was held 
in August last, and in case they refused admission under it, that 
Kansas should be kept out of the Union until she had 93,420 in- 
habitants. 

I was in favor of sending the constitution back in order to enable 
the people to say whether or not it was their act and deed, and em- 
bodied their will; but the other proposition, that if they refused to 
come into the Union under it, they should be kept out until they had 
double or treble the population they then had, I never would sanction 
by my vote. The reason why I could not sanction it is to be found 
in the fact that by the English bill, if the people of Kansas had only 
agreed to become a slaveholding State under the Lecompton consti- 
tution, they could have done so with 35,000 people, but if they in- 
sisted on being a free State, as they had a right to do, then they were 
to be punished by being kept out of the Union until they had nearly 
three times that population. I then said in my place in the Senate, 
as I now say to you, that whenever Kansas has population enough 
for a slave State she has population enough for a free State. I have 
never yet given a vote, and I never intend to record one, making an 
odious and unjust distinction between the different States of this 
Union. I hold it to be a fundamental principle in our republican 
form of government that all the States of this Union, old and new, 
free and slave, stand on an exact equality. Equality among the 
different States is a cardinal principle on which all our institutions 
rest. Wherever, therefore, you make a discrimination, saying to a 
slave State that it shall be admitted with 35,000 inhabitants, and to a 
free State that it shall not be admitted until it has 93,000 or 100,000 
inhabitants, you are throwing the whole weight of the Federal Gov- 
ernment into the scale in favor of one class of States against the 
other. Nor would I on the other hand any sooner sanction the doc- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 429 

trine that a free State could be admitted into the Union with 35,000 
people, while a slave State was kept out until it had 93,000. I have 
always declared in the Senate my willingness, and I am willing now. 
to adopt the rule that no Territory shaU ever become a State until 
it has the requisite population for a member of Congress, according 
to the then existing ratio. But while I have always been, and am 
now, willing to adopt that general rule, I was not willing and would 
not consent to make an exception of Kansas, as a punishment for her 
obstinacy in demanding the right to do as she pleased in the forma- 
tion of her constitution. It is proper that I should remark here that 
my opposition to the Lecompton constitution did not rest upon the 
peculiar position taken by Kansas on the subject of slavery. I held 
then, and hold now, that if the people of Kansas want a slave State, 
it is their right to make one and be received into the Union under it; 
if, on the contrary, they want a free State, it is their right to have it, 
and no man should ever oppose their admission because they ask it 
under the one or the other. I hold to that great principle of self- 
government which asserts the right of every people to decide for 
themselves the nature and character of the domestic institutions and 
fundamental law under which they are to live. 

The effort has been, and is now being, made in this State by cer- 
tain postmasters and other federal office-holders, to make a test of 
faith on the support of the English bill. These men are now mak- 
ing speeches all over the State against me and in favor of Lincoln, 
either directly or indirectly, because I would not sanction a dis- 
crimination between slave and free States by voting for the English 
bill. But while that bill is made a test in Illinois for the purpose of 
breaking up the Democratic organization in this State, how is it in 
the other States ? Go to Indiana, and there you find that English him- 
self, the author of the English bill, who is a candidate for reelection 
to Congress, has been forced by public opinion to abandon his own 
darling project, and to give a promise that he will vote for the ad- 
mission of Kansas at once, whenever she forms a constitution in 
pursuance of law, and ratifies it by a majority vote of her people. 
Not only is this the case with English himself, but I am informed that 
every Democratic candidate for Congress in Indiana takes the same 
ground. Pass to Ohio, and there you find that Groesbeck, and Pen- 
dleton, and Cox, and all the other anti-Lecompton men who stood 
shoulder to shoulder with me against the Lecompton constitution, 
but voted for the English bill, now repudiate it and take the same 
ground that I do on that question. So it is with the Joneses and 
others of Pennsjdvania, and so it is with every other Lecompton 
Democrat in the free States. 

They now abandon even the English bill, and come back to the 
true platform which I proclaimed at the time in the Senate, and 
upon which the Democracy of Illinois now stand. And yet, not- 
withstanding the fact that every Lecompton and anti-Lecompton 
Democrat in the free States has abandoned the English bill, you are 
told that it is to be made a test upon me, while the power and pa- 
tronage of the government are all exerted to elect men to Congress 
in the other States who occupy the same position with reference to 



430 ADDBESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

it that I do. It seems that my political offense consists in the fact 
that I did not first vote for the English bill, and thus pledge myself 
to keep Kansas out of the Union until she has a population of 
93,420, and then return home, violate that pledge, repudiate the bill, 
and take the opposite ground. If I had done this, perhaps the ad- 
ministration would now be advocating my reelection, as it is that of 
the others who have pursued this course. I did not choose to give 
that pledge, for the reason that I did not intend to carry out that 
principle. I never wiU consent, for the sake of conciliating the frowns 
of power, to pledge myself to do that which I do not intend to perform. 
I now submit the question to you, as my constituency, whether I was 
not right — first, in resisting tne adoption of the Lecompton constitu- 
tion ; and secondly, in resisting the English bill. I repeat that I op- 
posed the Lecompton constitution because it was not the act and deed 
of the people of Kansas, and did not embody their will. I denied 
the right or any power on earth, under our system of government, 
to force a constitution on an unwilling people. There was a time 
when some men could pretend to believe that the Lecompton con- 
stitution embodied the will of the people of Kansas, but that time has 
passed. The question was referred to the people of Kansas under the 
English bill last August, and then, at a fair election, they rejected the 
Lecompton constitution by a vote of from eight to ten against it to 
one in its favor. Since it has been voted down by so overwhelming 
a majority, no man can pretend that it was the act and deed of 
that people. I submit the question to you, whether or not, if it had 
not been for me, that constitution would have been crammed down 
the throats of the people of Kansas against their consent. While 
at least ninety-nine out of every hundred people here present agree 
that I was right in defeating that project, yet my enemies use the 
fact that I did defeat it by doing right, to break me down and put 
another man in the United States Senate in my place. The very 
men who acknowledge that I was right in defeating Lecompton now 
form an alliance with federal office-holders, professed Lecompton 
men, to defeat me because I did right. 

My political opponent, Mr. Lincoln, has no hope on earth, and has 
never dreamed that he had a chance of success, were it not for the 
aid that he is receiving from federal office-holders, who are using 
their influence and the patronage of the government against me in 
revenge for my having defeated the Lecompton constitution. What 
do you Republicans think of a political organization that will try to 
make an unholy and unnatural combination with its professed foes 
to beat a man merely because he has done right ? You know such 
is the fact with regard to your own party. You know that the ax 
of decapitation is suspended over every man in office in Illinois, and 
the terror of proscription is threatened every Democrat by the 
present administration, unless he supports the Republican ticket in 
preference to my Democratic associates and myself. I could find an 
instance in the postmaster of the city of Galesburg, and in every 
other postmaster in this vicinity, all of whom have been stricken 
down simply because they discharged the duties of their offices 
honestly, and supported the regular Democratic ticket in this State 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 431 

in the right. The Republican party is availing itself of every 
unworthy means in the present contest to carry the election, because 
its leaders know that if they let this chance slip they will never have 
another, and their hopes of making this a Republican State will be 
blasted forever. 

Now, let me ask you whether the country has any interest in sus- 
taining this organization known as the Republican party. That 
party is unlike aU other political organizations in this country. All 
other parties have been national in their character — have avowed 
their principles alike in the slave and free States, in Kentucky as 
well as Illinois, in Louisiana as well as in Massachusetts. SuchVas 
the case with the Old Whig party, and such was and is the case with 
the Democratic party. Whigs and Democrats could proclaim their 
principles boldly and fearlessly in the North and in the South, in the 
East and in the West, wherever the Constitution ruled and the 
American flag waved over American soil. 

But now you have a sectional organization, a part}' which 
appeals to the Northern section of the Union against the South- 
ern, a party which appeals to Northern passion. Northern pride, 
Northern ambition, and Northera prejudices, against Southern 
people, the Southern States, and Southern institutions. The lead- 
ers of that party hope that they will be able to unite the Northern 
States in one great sectional party, and inasmuch as the North 
is the stronger section, that they will thus be enabled to outvote, 
conquer, govern, and control the South. Hence you find that they 
now make speeches advocating principles and measures which can- 
not be defended in any slave-holding State of this Union. Is there 
a Republican residing in Galesburg who can travel into Ken- 
tucky, and carry his principles with him across the Ohio? What 
Republican from Massachusetts can visit the Old Dominion with- 
out leaving his principles behind him when he crosses Mason's 
and Dixon's line? Permit me to say to you in perfect good hu- 
mor, but in all sincerity, that no political creed is sound which 
cannot be proclaimed fearlessly in every State of this Union where 
the Federal Constitution is the supreme law of the land. Not only 
is this Republican party unable to proclaim its principles alike in 
the North and in the South, in the free States and m the slave States, 
but it cannot even proclaim them in the same forms and give them 
the same strength and meaning in all parts of the same State. My 
friend Lincoln finds it extremely difficult to manage a debate in 
the central part of the State, where there is a mixture of men from 
the North and the South. In the extreme northern part of Illinois 
he can proclaim as bold and radical Abolitionism as ever Giddings, 
Lovejoy, or Garrison enunciated; but when he gets down a little 
further south he claims that he is an old-line Whig, a disciple of 
Henry Clay, and declares that he still adheres to the old-line Whig 
creed, and has nothing whatever to do with Abolitionism, or negro 
equality, or negro citizenship. I once before hinted this of Mr. 
Lincoln in a public speech, and at Charleston he defied me to show 
that there was any difference between his speeches in the north and 
in the south, and that they were not in strict harmony. I will now 



432 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

call your attentioa to two of them, and you can then say whether 
you would be apt to believe that the same man ever uttered both. In 
a speech in reply to me at Chicago in July last, Mr. Lincoln, in speak- 
ing of the equality of the negro with the white man, used the following 
language : 

I should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence, 
which declares that all men are equal upon principle, and making excep- 
tions to it, where will it stop *? If one man says it does not mean a negro, 
'why may not another man say it does not mean another man ? If the Decla- 
ration is not the truth, let us get the statute-book in which we find it and 
tear it out. Who is so bold as to do it ? If it is not true, let us tear it out. 

You find that Mr. Lincoln there proposed that if the doctrine of 
the Declaration of Independence, declaring aU men to be born equal, 
did not include the negro and put him on an equality with the white 
man, that we should take the statute-book and tear it out. He there 
took the ground that the negro race is included in the Declaration 
of Independence as the equal of the white race, and that there could 
be no such thing as a distinction in the races, making one superior 
and the other inferior. I read now from the same speech : 

My friends [he says], I have detained you about as long as I deshe to do, 
and I have only to say let us discard all this qmbbliag about this man and 
the other man — this race and that race and the other race being inferior, 
and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position, discarding our 
standard that we have left us. Let us discard all these things, and unite 
as one people throughout this land, until we shall once more stand up de- 
claring that all men are created equal. 

[" That 's right," etc.] 

Yes, I have no doubt that you think it is right, but the Lincoln 
men down in Coles, Tazewellj and Sangamon counties do not think 
it is right. In the conclusion of the same speech, talking to the 
Chicago Abolitionists, he said : " I leave you, hoping that the lamp 
of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a 
doubt that aU men are created free and equal." ["Good, good!"] 
Well, you say good to that, and you are going to vote for Lincoln 
because he holds that doctrine. I will not blame you for support- 
ing him on that ground, but I will show you, in immediate contrast 
with that doctrine, what Mr. Lincoln said down in Egypt in order 
to get votes in that locality where they do not hold to such a doc- 
trine. In a joint discussion between Mr. Lincoln and myself, at 
Charleston, I think, on the 18th of last month, Mr. Lincoln, refer- 
ring to this subject, used the following language: 

I will say, then, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of bringing 
about in any way the social and pohtical equahty of the white and black 
races; that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters of the 
free negroes, or jiu-ors, or qualifying them to hold office, or having them 
to marry with white people. I will say in addition, that there is a physi- 
cal difference between the white and black races, which, I suppose, will 
forever forbid the two races living together upon terms of social and 
political equality, and inasmuch as they cannot so Uve, that while they do 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 4oo 

reinaiu together, there must be the position of superior and inferior, that 
I as much as any other man am in favor of the superior position being 
assigned to the white man. 

[''Good for Lincoln!"] 

Fellow-citizens, here you find men liurraliing for Lincoln, and say- 
ing that he did right when in one part of the State he stood np for 
negro equality, and in another part, for political effect, discarded the 
doctrine, and declared that there always must be a superior and 
inferior race. Abolitionists up north are expected and required to 
vote for Lincoln because he goes for the equalit}' of the races, hold- 
ing that by the Declaration of Independence the white man and the 
negi'o were created equal, and endowed by the divine law with that 
equality, and down south he tells the Old Whigs, the Kentuckians, 
Virginians, and Teunesseeans that there is a physical difference in the 
races, making one superior and the other inferior, and that he is in 
favor of maintaining the superiority of the white race over the negro. 

Now, how can you reconcile those two positions of Mr. Lincoln ? 
He is to be voted for in the south as a pro-slavery man, and he is to 
be voted for in the north as an Abolitionist. Up here he thinks it 
is all nonsense to talk about a difference between the races, and 
says that we must " discard all quibbling about this race and that 
race and the other race being inferior, and therefore they must be 
placed in an inferior position." Down south he makes this "quib- 
ble" about this race and that race and the other race being inferior 
as the creed of his party, and declares that the negro can never be 
elevated to the position of the white man. You find that his politi- 
cal meetings are called by different names in different counties in 
the State. Here they are called Repubhcan meetings, but in old 
Tazewell, where Lincoln made a speech last Tuesday, he did not 
address a Republican meeting, but " a grand rally of the Lincoln 
men." There are very few Republicans there, because Tazewell 
County is filled with old Virginians and Kentuckians, all of whom 
are Whigs or Democrats, and if Mr. Lincoln had called an Abolition 
or Republican meeting there, he would not get many votes. Go 
down into Egypt, and you wiU find that he and his party are operat- 
ing under an alias there, which his friend Trumbull has given them, 
in order that they may cheat the people. When I was down in 
Monroe County a few weeks ago addressing the people, I saw hand- 
bills posted announcing that Mr. Trumbull was going to speak in 
behalf of Lincoln, and what do you think the name of his party was 
there ? Why, the "Free Democracy." Mr. Trumbull and Mr. Jehu 
Baker were announced to address the Free Democracy of Monroe 
County, and the bill was signed " Many Free Democrats." The rea- 
son that Mr. Lincoln and his party adopted the name of " Free De- 
mocracy " down there was because Monroe County has always been 
an old-fashioned Democratic county, and hence it was necessary to 
make the people believe that they were Democrats, sympathized 
with them, and were fighting for Lincoln as Democrats. Come up 
to Springfield, where Lincoln now lives and always has lived, and 
you find that the convention of his party which assembled to nomi- 
nate candidates for the legislature, who are expected to vote for him 
Vol. I.— 28. 



434 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

if elected, dare not adopt the name of Republicaii,bnt assembled under 
the title of " All opposed to the Democracy." Thus you find that Mr. 
Lincoln's creed cannot travel through even one half of the counties 
of this State, but that it changes its hues, and becomes lighter and 
lighter as it travels from the extreme north, until it is nearly white 
when it reaches the extreme south end of the State. I ask you, my 
friends, why cannot Repubhcans avow their principles alike every- 
where ? I would despise myself if I thought that I was procuring 
your votes by concealing my opinions, and by avowing one set of 
principles in one part of the State, and a ditferent set in another 
part. 

If I do not truly and honorably represent your feelings and prin- 
ciples, then I ought not to be your senator; and I will never conceal 
my opinions, or modify or change them a hair's-breadth, in order to 
get votes. I tell you that this Chicago doctrine of Lincoln's — de- 
claring that the negro and the white man are made equal by the Dec- 
laration of Independence and by Divine Providence — is a monstrous 
heresy. The signers of the Declaration of Independence never 
dreamed of the negro when they were writing that document. They 
referred to white men, to men of European birth and European de- 
scent, when they declared the equality of all men. I see a gentleman 
there in the crowd shaking his head. Let me remind him that when 
Thomas Jefferson wrote that document he was the owner, and so 
continued until his death, of a large nimiber of slaves. Did he in- 
tend to say in that Declaration that his negro slaves, which he held 
and treated as property, were created his equals by divine law, and 
that he was violating the law of God every day of his life by holding 
them as slaves ? It must be borne in mind that when that Declara- 
tion was put forth, every one of the thirteen colonies were slave- 
holding colonies, and every man who signed that instrument repre- 
sented a slaveholding constituency. Recollect, also, that no one of 
them emancipated his slaves, much less put them on an equality with 
himself, after he signed the Declaration. On the contrary, they all 
continued to hold their negroes as slaves during the Revolutionary 
War. Now, do you believe — are you willing to have it said — that 
every man who signed the Declaration of Independence declared the 
negro his equal, and then was hypocrite enough to continue to hold 
him as a slave, in violation of what he believed to be the divine law? 
And yet when you say that the Declaration of Independence includes 
the negro, you charge the signers of it with hypocrisy. 

I say to you frankly, that in my opinion this government was 
made by our fathers on the white basis. It was made by white men 
for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and was 
intended to be administered by white men in all time to come. But 
while I hold that under our Constitution and political system the 
ne^ro is not a citizen, cannot be a citizen, and ought not to be a 
citizen, it does not follow by any means that he should be a slave. 
On the contrary, it does follow that the negro as an inferior race 
ought to possess every right, every privilege, every immunity which 
he can safely exercise consistent with the safety of the society in 
which he lives. Humanity requires, and Christianity commands, that 



\ 



ADDBESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 435 

you shall extend to every inferior being, and every dependent being, 
all the privileges, immunities, and advantages which can be granted 
to them consistent with the safety of society. If you ask me the 
nature and extent of these privileges, I answer that that is a ques- 
tion which the people of each State must decide for themselves. 
Illinois has decided that question for herself. We have said that in 
this State the negi-o shall not be a slave, nor shall he be a citizen, 
Kentucky holds a different doctrine. New York holds one different 
from either, and Maine one different from all. Virginia, in her 
policy on this question, differs in many respects from the others, and 
so on, until there are hardly two States whose policy is exactly alike 
in regard to the relation of the white man and the negro. Nor can 
you reconcile them and make them alike. Each State must do as it 
pleases. Illinois had as much right to adopt the policy which we 
have on that subject as Kentucky had to adopt a different policy. 
The great principle of this government is that each State has the 
right to do as it pleases on all these questions, and no other State or 
power on earth has the right to interfere with us, or complain of us 
merely because our system differs from theirs. In the compromise 
measures of 1850, Mr. Clay declared that this great principle ought 
to exist in the Territories as well as in the States, and I reasserted 
his doctrine in the Kansas and Nebraska bill in 1854. 

But Mr. Lincoln cannot be made to understand, and those who 
are determined to vote for liun, no matter whether he is a pro- 
slavery man in the south and a negro-equality advocate in the 
north, cannot be made to understand, how it is that in a Territory 
the people can do as they please on the slavery question under the 
Dred Scott decision. Let us see whether I cannot explain it to the 
satisfaction of aU impartial men. Chief Justice Taney has said, in 
his opinion in the Dred Scott case, that a negro slave, being property, 
stands on an equal footing with other property, and that the owner 
may carry them into United States territory the same as he does 
other property. Suppose any two of you neighbors shall conclude 
to go to Kansas, one carrying $100,000 worth of negro slaves and 
the other $100,000 worth of mixed merchandise, including quantities 
of liquors. You both agree that under that decision }a)u may carry 
your property to Kansas, but when you get it there, the mercliant 
who is possessed of the liquors is met by the Maine li(pior law, Avliicli 
prohibits the sale or use of his property, and the owner of the slaves 
IS met by equally unfriendly legislation, which makes his property 
worthless after he gets it there. What is the right to carry your prop- 
erty into the Territory worth to either, when unfriendly legislation 
in the Territory renders it worthless after you get it there ? The 
slaveholder, when he gets his slaves there, finds that there is no local 
law to protect him in holding them, no slave code, no police regula- 
tion maintaining and supporting him in his right, and he discovers 
at once that the absence of such friendly legislation excludes his prop- 
erty from the Territory just as irresistibly as if there was a positive 
constitutional prohibition excluding it. 

Thus you find it is with any kind of property in a Territory ; it de- 
pends for its protection on the local and municipal law. If the peo- 



436 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

pie of a Territory want slavery, they make friendly legislation to 
introduce it, but if they do not want it, they mthhold all protection 
from it, and then it cannot exist there. Such was the view taken on 
the subject by different Southern men when the Nebraska bill passed. 
See the spee(;h of Air. Orr, of South Carolina, the present Speaker of 
the House of Representatives of Congress, made at that time, and 
there you will find this whole doctrine argued out at full length. 
Read the speeches of other Southern congressmen, senators, and repre- 
sentatives, made in 1854, and you mil find that they took the same 
view of the subject as Mr. Orr — that slavery could never be forced 
on a people who did not want it. I hold that in this couiitiy there 
is no power on the face of the globe that can force any institution on 
an unwilling people. The great fundamental principle of our gov- 
ernment is that the people of each State and each Territory shall be 
left perfectly free to decide for themselves what shall be the natm-e 
and character of their institutions. When this government was made, 
it was based on that principle. At the time of its formation there 
were twelve slaveholding States, and one free State, in this Union. 
Suppose this doctrine of Mr. Lincoln and the Republicans, of uni- 
formity of laws of all the States on the subject of slavery, had pre- 
vailed; suppose Mr. Lincoln himself had been a member of the 
convention which framed the Constitution, and that he had risen in 
that august body, and, addressing the Father of his Country, had said 
as he did at Springfield : 

A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government 
cannot endure pei-manently half slave and half free. I do not expect the 
Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect 
it wiU cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or aU the other. 

What do yon think would have been the result ? Suppose he had 
made that convention believe that doctrine, and they had acted upon 
it, what do you think would have been the result? Do you believe 
that one free State would have outvoted the twelve slaveholding 
States, and thus abolished slavery I On the contrary, would not the 
twelve slaveholding States have outvoted the one free State, and 
under his doctrine have fastened slavery by an irrevocable constitu- 
tional provision upon every inch of the American republic f Thus 
you see that the doctrine he now advocates, if proclaimed at the 
beginning of the government, would liave established slavery every- 
where throughout the American continent; and are 5^011 willing, now 
that we have the majority section, to exercise a power which we 
never would have submitted to when we were in the minority ? If 
the Southern States had attempted to control our institutions, and 
make the States all slave when they had the power, I ask would you 
have submitted to it '? If you would not, are you Avilling, now that 
we have become the strongest under that great principle of self- 
government that allows each State to do as it pleases, to attempt 
to control the Southern institutions ? Then, my friends, I say to 
you that thei'e is but one path of peace in this repuldic, and that 
IS to administer this government as our fathers made it, di^dded 
into free and slave States, allowing each State to decide for itself 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 437 

whether it wants slavery or uot. If Illinois will settle the sla- 
very question for herself, and mind her own business and let her 
neighbors alone, we vnH be at peace with Kentucky, and eveiy other 
Southern State. If every other State in the Union will do the same, 
there wiU be peace between the North and South, and in the whole 
Union. 

Mr. Lincoln's Reply in the Oaleshurg Joint Delate. 

Mij Fellow-citizens: A very large portion of the speech which 
Judge Douglas has addressed to you has pre^'iously been delivered 
and put in print. I do not mean that for a hit upon' the judge at all. 
If I had not been interrupted, I was going to say that such an answer 
us I was able to make to a very large portion of it, had already been 
more than once made and published. There has been an opportu- 
nity afforded to the pubHc to see our respective \dews upon the topics 
discussed in a large portion of the speech which he has just delivered. 
I make these remarks for the purpose of excusing myself for not 
passing over the entii'e ground that the judge has traversed. I, 
however, desh-e to take up some of the points that he has attended 
to, and ask your attention to them, and I shall follow him backward 
upon some notes which I have taken, reversing the order by begin- 
ning where he concluded. 

The judge has alluded to the Declaration of Independence, and 
insisted that negroes are not included in that Declaration ; and that 
it is, a slander upon the framers of that instrument to suppose that 
negroes were meant therein; and he asks you: Is it j)ossible to 
believe that Mr. Jefferson, who penned the immortal paper, coidd 
have supposed himself applying the language of that instrument to 
the negro race, and yet held a portion of that race in slaveiy? 
Would he not at once have fi*eed them? I only have to remark 
upon this part of the judge's speech (and that, too, very briefly, for 
I shall not detain myself, or you, upon that point for any great 
length of time), that I believe the entu-e records of the world, fi*om 
the date of the Declaration of Independence up to within three years 
ago, may be searched in vain for one single affirmation, from one 
single man, that the negro was not included in the Declaration of 
Independence ; I think I may defy Judge Douglas to show that he 
ever said so, that Washington ever said so, that any president ever 
said so, that any member of Congress ever said so, or that any 
liN-ing man upon the whole earth ever said so, until the necessities of 
the present policy of the Democratic party, in regard to slavery, had 
to invent that affii'mation. And I will remind Judge Douglas and 
this audience that while Mr. Jefferson was the owmer of slaves, as 
undoubtedly he was, in speaking upon this veiy subject, he used the 
strong language that "he trembled for his country when he remem- 
bered that God was just"; and I will offer the liighest premium in 
my power to Judge Douglas if he "wtII show that he, in all his life, 
ever uttered a sentiment at all akin to that of Jefferson. 

The next thing to which I will ask your attention is the judge's 
comments upon the fact, as he assiunes it to be, that we cannot call 



438 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

om- public meetings as Republican meetings ; and he instances Taze- 
well County as one of the places where the friends of Lincoln have 
called a public meeting and have not dared to name it a Republican 
meeting. He instances Monroe County as another where Judge 
Trumbull and Jehu Baker addi'essed the persons whom the judge 
assumes to be the friends of Lincoln, calling them the "Free Democ- 
racy." I have the honor to inform Judge Douglas that he spoke in 
that very county of Tazewell last Satui'day, and I was there on Tues- 
day last, and when he spoke there he spoke under a call not ventur- 
ing to use the word " Democrat." [Turning to Judge Douglas.] 
What think you of this ? 

So, again, there is another thing to which I would ask the judge's 
attention upon this subject. In the contest of 1856 his party de- 
lighted to call themselves together as the "National Democracy," 
but now, if there should be a notice put up any^vhere for a meeting 
of the "National Democracy," Judge Douglas and his friends would 
not come. They would not suppose themselves invited. They 
would understand that it was a call for those hateful postmasters 
whom he talks about. 

Now a few words in regard to these extracts from speeches of 
mine which Judge Douglas has read to you, and which he supposes 
are in very gi-eat contrast to each other. Those speeches have been 
before the public for a considerable time, and if they have any in- 
consistency in them, if there is any conflict in them, the pubhc have 
been able to detect it. When the judge says, in speaking on this 
subject, that I make speeches of one sort for the people of the 
northern end of the State, and of a different sort for the southern 
people, he assumes that I do not understand that my speeches will 
be put in print and read north and south. I knew all the while that 
the speech that I made at Chicago and the one I made at Jonesboro 
and the one at Charleston woidd all be put in print, and all the read- 
ing and intelligent men in the community would see them and know 
all about my opinions ; and I have not supposed, and do not now 
suppose, that thei'e is any conflict whatever between them. But the 
judge will have it that if we do not confess that there is a sort of in- 
equality between the white and black races which justifies us in 
making them slaves, we must, then, insist that there is a degi*ee of 
equality that requires us to make them our wives. Now, I have all 
the while taken a broad distinction in regard to that matter ; and 
that is all there is in these different speeches which he arraj^s here, 
and the entire reading of either of the speeches will show that that 
distinction was made. Perhaps by taking two parts of the same 
speech he could have got up as much of a conflict as the one he has 
found. I have all the while maintained that in so far as it should 
be insisted that there was an equality between the white and black 
races that should produce a perfect social and political equality, it 
was an impossibility. This you have seen in my printed speecnes, 
and with it I have said that in their right to " life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness," as proclaimed in that old Declaration, the in- 
ferior races are our equals. And these declarations I have constantly 
made in reference to the abstract moral question, to contemplate and 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 439 

consider wlieu we are legislating about any new country which is not 
ah'eady ciu'sed with the actual presence of the e\H — slavery. I have 
never manifested any impatience with the necessities that spring 
from the actual presence of black people amongst us, and the actu<u 
existence of slavery amongst us where it does ah'eady exist ; but I 
have insisted that, in legislating for new countries where it does not 
exist, there is no just rule other than that of moral and abstract 
right. With reference to those new coimtries, those maxims as to 
the right of a people to " life, liberty, and the pm'suit of happiness " 
were the just rules to be constantly refeiTcd to. There is no mis- 
understanding tills, except by men interested to misunderstand it. I 
take it that I have to address an intelligent and reading community 
who will peruse what I say, weigh it, and then judge whether I ad- 
vance improper or unsound views, or whether I advance hjijocritical 
and deceptive and contrary \iews in different portions of the countr3^ 
I believe myself to be guilty of no such thing as the latter, though, 
of com-se, I cannot claim that I am entu*ely free from all error in the 
opinions I advance. 

The jud^e has also detained us awhile in regard to the distinction 
between his party and our party. His he assumes to be a national 
party — om-s a sectional one. He does this in asking the question 
whether this countiy has any interest in the maintenance of the 
Republican pai'tyf He assumes that om* pariy is altogether sec- 
tional — that the party to which he adheres is national; and the 
argument is that no party can be a rightful party — can be based 
upon rightful principles — unless it can announce its principles 
everywhere. I presume that Judge Douglas could not go into Rus- 
sia and announce the doctrine of our national Democracy; he could 
not denounce the doctrine of kings and emperors and monarchies in 
Russia ; and it may be true of this couutiy, that in some places we 
may not be able to proclaim a doctrine as clearly true as the truth 
of Democracy, because there is a section so directly opposed to it 
that they "wdll not tolerate us in doing so. Is it the true test of the 
soimdness of a doctrine, that in some places people won't let you 
proclaim it? Is that the way to test the truth of any doctrine! 
Why, I imderstand that at one time the people of Chicago would 
not let Judge Douglas preach a certain favorite doctrine of his. I 
commend to his consideration the question, whether he takes that as 
a test of the unsoundness of what he wanted to preach. 

There is another thing to which I wish to ask attention for a little 
while on this occasion. What has always been the evidence brought 
forward to prove that the Republican party is a sectional party ? 
The main one was that in the Southern portion of the Union the 
people did not let the RepubUcans proclaim their doctrines amongst 
them. That has been the main evidence brought forward — that 
they had no supporters, or substantially none, m the slave States. 
The South have not taken hold of oui- principles as we announce 
them ; nor does Judge Douglas now grapple -vvith those principles. 
We have a Republican State platform, laid dovra in Springfield in 
June last, stating our position all the way through the questions be- 
fore the country. We are now far advanced in this canvass. Judge 



440 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Douglas and I have made perhaps forty speeches apiece, and we have 
now for the fifth time met face to face in debate, and up to this day I 
have not found either Judge Douglas or any friend of his taking hold 
of the Repubhcan platform or laying his finger upon anything in it 
that is wi'ong. I ask you all to recollect that. Judge Douglas turns 
away from the platform of principles to the fact that he can find peo- 
ple somewhere who will not allow us to announce those principles. 
If he had great confidence that our principles were wi-ong, he would 
take hold of them and demonstrate them to be wrong. But he does 
not do so. The only evidence he has of their being wi'ong is in the 
fact that there are people who won't allow us to preach them. I ask 
again is that the way to test the soundness of a doctrine ? 

I ask his attention also to the fact that by the rule of nationality he 
is himself fast becoming sectional. I ask his attention to the fact that 
his speeches would not go as cuiTcnt now south of the Ohio River 
as they have formerly gone there. I ask his attention to the fact 
that he felicitates himself to-day that all the Democrats of the free 
States are agi'eeing with him, while he omits to tell us that the Demo- 
crats of any slave State agree with him. If he has not thought of 
this, I commend to his consideration the e\'idence in his own declara- 
tion, on this day, of his becoming sectional too. I see it rapidly ap- 
proacliing. Whatever may be the result of this ephemeral contest 
fjetween Judge Douglas aud myself, I see the day rapidly approach- 
ing when his pill of sectionalism, which he has been thrusting down 
the throats of Repubhcans for years past, Avill be crowded down his 
own throat. 

Now in regard to what Judge Douglas said (in the beginning of 
his speech) about the compromise of 1850 containing the principle 
of the Nebraska biU; although I have often presented my \dews upon 
that subject, yet as I have not done so in this canvass, I ^dll, if you 
please, detain you a little with them. I have always maintained so 
far as I was able that there was nothing of the principle of the Ne- 
braska bill in the compromise of 1850 at all — nothing whatever. 
Where can you find the principle of the Nebraska biU in that com- 
promise ? if anywhere, in the two pieces of the compromise organ- 
izing the Territories of New Mexico and Utah. It was expressly 
provided in these two acts that, when they came to be admitted into 
the Union, they should be admitted with or wthout slavery, as they 
should choose", by their own constitutions. Nothing was said in 
either of those acts as to what was to be done in relation to slavery 
during the territorial existence of those Territories, while Henry 
Clay constantly made the declaration (Judge Douglas recognizing 
him as a leader) that, in his opinion, the old Mexican laws would 
control that question during the territorial existence, and that these 
old Mexican laws excluded slavery. How can that be used as a 
principle for declaring that during the territorial existence, as well 
as at the time of framing the constitution, the people, if you please, 
might have slaves if they wanted them I I am not discussing the 
question whether it is right or wi'ong ; but how are the New Mexican 
and Utah laws patterns for the Nebraska bill ? I maintain that the 
organization of Utah and New Mexico did not establish a general 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 441 

principle at all. It had no featm-e establishing a general princi- 
ple. The acts to which I have referred were a part of a general sys- 
tem of compromises. They did not lay down what was proposed as 
a regular policy for the Territories ; only an agi'eement in this par- 
ticular case to do in that way, because other things were done that 
were to be a compensation for it. They were allowed to come in in 
that shape, because in another way it was paid for — considering that 
as a part of that system of measiu'es called the compromise of 1850, 
which finally included half a dozen acts. It included the admission 
of California as a free State, which was kept out of the Union for 
half a year because it had formed a free eonstitutiou. It included 
the settlement of the boundary of Texas, which had been undefined 
before, which was in itself a slavery question ; for if you pushed the 
line further west, you made Texas larger, and made more slave Ter- 
ritory ; while if you drew the line toward the east, you narrowed the 
boundary and diminished the domain of slavery, and by so much 
increased free Territory. It included the abolition of the slave-trade 
in the District of Columliia. It included the passage of a new fugitive- 
slave law. All these things were put together, and though passed 
in separate acts, were nevertheless in legislation (as the speeches at 
the time will show) made to depend upon each other. Each got 
votes, with the understanding that the other measm-es were to pass, 
and by this system of compromise, in that series of measures, those 
two bills — the New Mexico and Utah biUs — were passed ; and I say 
for that reason they could not be taken as models, framed upon theii' 
own intrinsic principle, for all futui'e Territories. And I have the 
evidence of this in the fact that Judge Douglas, a year afterward, 
or more than a year afterward perhaps, when he fii'st introduced 
bills for the pm'pose of framing new Territories, did not attempt to 
follow these bills of New Mexico and Utah ; and even when he intro- 
duced this Nebraska bill, I tliink you will discover that he did ni^t 
exactly follow them. But I do not wish to dwell at great length 
upon this branch of the discussion. My own opinion is that a thorough 
investigation wiU show most plamly that the New Mexico and Utah 
bills were part of a system of compromise, and not designed as 
patterns for future territorial legislation, and that this Nebraska bill 
did not foUow them as a pattern at all. 

The judge tells us, in proceeding, that he is opposed to making au}^ 
odious distinctions between free and slave States. I am altogether 
unaware that the Republicans are in favor of making any odious 
distinctions between the free and slave States. But there still is a 
difference, I think, between Judge Douglas and the Republicans in 
this. I suppose that the real difference betAveen Judge Douglas and 
his friends and the Republicans, on the contrar}^, is that the judge 
is not in favor of making -dJij difference between slavery and lib- 
erty — that he is in favor of eradicating, of pressing out of \iew, 
the questions of preference in this country for free or slave institu- 
tions ; and consequently every sentiment he utters discards the idea 
that there is any AATong in slaveiy. Everything that emanates from 
him or his coadjutors in their course of policy carefully excludes 
the thought that there is anything WTong in slavery. All their 



442 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

arguments, if you will consider them, will be seen to exclude the 
thought that there is anytliing whatever wrong in slavery. If you 
will take the judge's speeches, and select the short and pointed sen- 
tences expressed by him, — as his declaration that he "don't care 
whether slaveiy is voted up or down," — you will see at once that 
this is perfectly logical, if you do not atlmit that slavery is A\Tong. 
If you do admit that it is wi-ong, Judge Douglas cannot logically say 
he don't care whether a wrong is voted up or voted down. Judge 
Douglas declares that if any community wants slavery they have a 
right to have it. He can say that logically, if he says that there is 
no wrong in slavery; but if you admit that there is a wrong in it, he 
cannot logically say that anybody has a right to do wrong. He in- 
sists that, upon the score of equality, the owners of slaves and 
owners of property — of horses and eveiy other sort of propei'ty — 
should be alike, and hold them alike in a new Territoiy. That is 
perfectly logical, if the two species of property are ahke, and are 
equally founded in right. But if you admit that one of them is 
wrong, you cannot institute any equality between right and wrong. 
And from this difference of sentiment — the belief on the part of 
one that the institution is wrong, and a policy springing from that 
belief which looks to the arrest of the enlargement of that wrong ; 
and this other sentiment, that it is no wrong, and a policy sprung from 
that sentiment which will tolerate no idea of preventing that wrong 
from gi'owing larger, and looks to there never being an end of it 
through all the existence of things — arises the real difference be- 
tween Judge Douglas and his friends on the one hand, and the 
Republicans on the other. Now, I confess myself as belonging to 
that class in the country who contemplate slavery as a moral, social, 
and political evil, having due regard for its actual existence amongst 
us, and the difficulties of getting rid of it in any satisfactory way, 
and to aU the constitutional obligations which have been thrown 
about it ; but who, nevertheless, desire a policy that looks to the pre- 
vention of it as a wi-ong, and looks hopefully to the time when as a 
wrong it may come to an end. 

Judge Douglas has again, for, I believe, the fifth time, if not the 
seventh, in my presence, reiterated his charge of a conspiracy or com- 
bination between the National Democrats and Republicans. What 
evidence Judge Douglas has upon this subject I know not, inasmuch 
as he never favors us with any, I have said upon a former occasion, 
and I do not clioose to suppress it now, that I have no objection to the 
division in the judge's party. He got it up himself. It was aU his 
and then* work. He had, I think, a great deal more to do mth the 
steps that led to the Lecompton constitution than Mr. Buchanan 
had ; though at last, when they reached it, they quarreled over it, 
and their friends divided upon it. I am very free to confess to Judge 
Douglas that I have no objection to the division; but I defy the 
judge to show any evidence that I have in any way promoted that 
division, unless he insists on being a witness himself in merely say- 
ing so. I can give all fair friends of Judge Douglas here to under- 
stand exactly the \dew that RepubUcans take in regard to that 
division. Don't you remember how two years ago the opponents 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 443 

of the Democratic party were divided between Fremont and Fill- 
more 1 I guess you do. Any Democrat wlio remembers that divi- 
sion will remember also that he was at the time very glad of it, and 
then he will be able to see all there is between the National Demo- 
crats and the Repubhcans. What we now think of the two divisions 
of Democrats, you then thought of the Fremont and Fillmore divi- 
sions. That is all there is of it. 

But if the jiidge continues to put forward the declaration that 
there is an unholy, unnatural alliance between the Republicans and 
the National Democrats, I now want to enter my protest against 
receiving him as an entirely competent witness upon that subject. 
I want to call to the judge's attention an attack lie made upon me 
in the lii-st one of these debates, at Ottawa, on the 21st of August. In 
order to fix extreme Abolitionism upon me. Judge Douglas read a 
set of resolutions which he declared had been passed by a Republican 
State convention, in October, 1854, at Springfield, Illinois, and he 
declared I had taken part in that convention. It turned out that 
although a few men calling themselves an anti-Nebraska State con- 
vention had sat at Springfield about that time, yet neither did I take 
any part in it, nor did it pass the resolutions or any such resolutions 
as Judge Douglas read. So apparent had it become that the resolu- 
tions which he read had not been passed at Springfield at all, nor by 
any State convention in which I had taken part, that seven days 
afterward, at Freeport, Judge Douglas declared that he had been 
misled by Charles H. Lanphier, editor of the " State Register," and 
Thomas L. Harris, member of Congress in that district, and he 
promised in that speech that when he went to Springfield he would 
investigate the matter. Since then Judge Douglas has been to 
Springfield, and I presume has made the investigation; but a 
month has passed since he has been there, and so far as I know, 
he has made no report of the result of his investigation. I have 
waited as I think a sufficient time for the report of that investiga- 
tion, and I have some curiosity to see and hear it. A fraud, an 
absolute forgery, was committed, and the perpetration of it was traced 
to the three — Lanphier, Harris, and Douglas. Whether it can be 
narrowed in any way, so as to exonerate any one of them, is what 
Judge Douglas's report would probably show. 

It is tiiie that the set of resolutions read by Judge Douglas were 
published in the Illinois " State Register " on the 16th of October, 
1854, as being the resolutions of an anti-Nebraska convention which 
had sat in that same month of October, at Springfield. But it is also 
true that the publication in the " Register " was a forgery then, and 
the question is still behind, which of the three, if not all of them, 
committed that forgery ? The idea that it was done by mistake is 
absurd. The article in the Illinois " State Register " contains part of 
the real proceedings of that Springfield convention, showing that 
the writer of the article had the real proceedings before him, and 
piu-posely threw out the genuine resolutions passed by the conven- 
tion, and fraudulently substituted the others. Lanphier then, as now, 
was the editor of the '' Register," so that there seems to be but little 
room for his escape. But then it is to be borne in mind that Lan- 



444 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

pliier had less interest in the object of that forgery than either of the 
other two. The main object of that forgery at that time was to beat 
Yates and elect Harris to Congress, and that object was known to be 
exceedingly dear to Judge Douglas at that time. Harris and Doug- 
las were both in Springfield when the convention was in session, and 
although they both left before the fraud appeared in the " Register," 
subsequent events show that they have both had theu' eyes fixed 
upon that convention. 

The fraud having l)een apparently successful upon that occasion, 
both Harris and Douglas have more than once since then been at- 
tempting to put it to new uses. As the fisherman's wife, whose 
drowned husband was brought home with his body full of eels, said 
Avheu she was asked what was to be done with him, '' Take the 
eels out and set him again," so Harris and Douglas have shown a 
disposition to take the eels out of that stale fraud by which they 
gained Harris's election, and set the fraud again more than once. On 
the 9tli of July, 1856, Douglas attempted a repetition of it upon 
Trumbull on the floor of the Senate of the United States, as will ap- 
pear from the appendix to the "■ Congressional Globe " of that date. 
On the 9th of August, Harris attempted it again upon Norton in 
the House of Representatives, as will appear by the same docu- 
ment — the appendix to the "Congressional Globe" of that date. 
On the 21st of August last, all three — Lanphier, Douglas, and Har- 
ris — reattempted it upon me at Ottawa. It has been clung to and 
played out again and again as an exceedingly high trump by this 
blessed trio. And now that it has been discovered publicly to be a 
fraud, we find that Judge Douglas manifests no sm'prise at it at all. 
He makes no complaint of Lanphier, who must have known it to be 
a fraud from the beginning. He, Lanphier, and Harris are just as 
cozy now, and just as active in the concoction of new schemes as 
they were before the general discovei-y of this fraud. Now all this 
is very natural if they are all ahke guilty in that fraud, and it is very 
unnatural if any one of them is innocent. Lanphier perhaps insists 
that the rule of honor among thieves does not quite requii'c him to 
take all upon himself, and consequently my friend Judge Douglas 
finds it difficult to make a satisfactory report upon his investigation. 
But meanwhile the three are agreed that each is " a most honor- 
able man." 

Judge Douglas requires an indorsement of his truth and honor by 
a reelection to the United States Senate, and he makes and reports 
against me and against Judge Trumbull, day after day, charges 
which we know to be utterly untrue, without for a moment seeming 
to thmk that this one unexplained fraud, which he promised to in- 
vestigate, vnW be the least drawback to his claim to behef. Harris 
ditto. He asks a reelection to the lower House of Congress without 
seeming to remember at all that he is involved in this dishonorable 
fraud ! The Illinois *' State Register," edited by Lanphier, then, as 
now, the central organ of both Harris and Douglas, continues to din 
the public ear with these assertions without seeming to suspect that 
they are at all lacking in title to beUef. 

After aU, the question still recui's upon us, how did that fraud 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 445 

originally get into the " State Register " '? Lanpliier tlien, as now, 
was the editor of that paper. Lanphier knows. Lanphier cannot be 
ignorant of how and by whom it was originally concocted. Can he 
be induced to tell, or if lie has told, can Judge Douglas be induced 
to tell, how it originally was concocted ? It may be true that Lanphier 
insists that the two men for whose benefit it was originally devised 
shall at least bear their share of it ! How that is, I do not know, and 
while it remains unexplained, I hope to be pardoned if I insist that 
the mere fact of Judge Douglas making charges against Triunbull 
and myseK is not quite sufficient evidence to establish them ! 

While we were at Freeport, in one of these joint discussions, I 
answered certain interrogatories which Judge Douglas had pro- 

Eounded to me, and there in turn propounded some to liim, which 
e in a sort of way answered. The third one of these interrogatories 
I have with me, and wish now to make some comments upon it. It 
was in these words : *i If the Supreme Com^t of the United States 
shall decide that States cannot exclude slavei-y from theii* limits, are 
you in favor of acquiescing in, adopting, and folJo"\ving such decision 
as a rule of political action ? " 

To this interrogatory Judge Douglas made no answer in any just 
sense of the word. He contented himseK with sneering at the 
thought that it was possible for the Supreme Court ever to make 
such a decision. He sneered at me for propounding the interroga- 
tory. I had not propounded it mthout some reflection, and I wish 
now to address to this audience some remarks upon it. 

In the second clause of the sixth article, I believe it is, of the C-on- 
stitution of the United States, we find the following language : 
" This Constitution and the laws of the United States which shall be 
made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall 
be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the 
supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every State shall be bound 
thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the 
contrary notwithstanding." 

The essence of the Dred Scott case is compressed into the sen- 
tence which I will now read: "Now, as we have ah'eady said in an 
earlier part of this opinion, upon a different point, the right of prop- 
erty in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitu- 
tion." I repeat it, *' the right of property in a slave is distinctly and 
expressly affirmed in the Constitution"! What is it to be "affirmed" 
in the Constitution? Made firm in the Constitution — so made that 
it cannot be separated from the Constitution without l)reaking the 
Constitution — durable as the Constitution, and part of the Constitu- 
tion ? Now, remembering the provision of the Constitution which I 
have read, affirming that that instrument is the supreme law of the 
land ; that the judges of every State shall be bound by it, any law 
or constitution of any State to the contrary not^vithstanding ; that 
the right of property in a slave is affirmed in that Constitution, is 
made, formed into, and cannot be separated from it without break- 
ing it; durable as the instrument, part of the instrmnent, — what 
follows as a short and even syllogistic argument from itf I think 
it follows, and I submit to the consideration of men capable of argu- 



446 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ing, whether as I state it, iu syllogistic form, the argument has any 
fault in it? 

Nothing in the constitution or laws of any State can destroy a 
right distinctly and expressly affirmed iu the Constitution of the 
United States. 

The right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed 
iu the Constitution of the United States. 

Therefore, nothing in the constitution or laws of any State can 
destroy the right of property in a slave. 

I believe that no fault can be pointed out in that argument; assum- 
ing the truth of the premises, the conclusion, so far as I have ca- 
pacity at all to understand it, foUows inevitably. There is a fault in 
it, as I think, but the fault is not in the reasoning; the falsehood, in 
fact, is a fault in the premises. I believe that the right of property in a 
slave is not distinctly and expressly affii'med in the Constitution, and 
Judge Douglas thinks it is. I believe that the Supreme Court and the 
advocates of that decision may search in vain for the place in the Con- 
stitution where the right of property in a slave is distinctly and ex- 
pressly affii'med. I say, therefore, that I think one of the premises is 
not true in fact. But it is true with Judge Douglas. It is true with 
the Supreme Court who pronounced it. They are estopped from 
denying it, and being estopped from denying it, the conclusion fol- 
lows that the Constitution of the United States, being the supreme 
law, no constitution or law can interfere with it. It being affirmed in 
the decision that the right of property in a slave is distinctly and ex- 
pressly affirmed in the Constitution, the conclusion inevitably fol- 
lows that no State law or constitution can destroy that ri^ht. I then 
say to Judge Douglas, and to all others, that I think it will take 
a better answer than a sneer to show that those who have said that 
the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed 
in the Constitution are not prepared to show that no constitution or 
law can destroy that right. I say I believe it will take a far better 
argument than a mere sneer to show to the minds of intelligent men 
that whoever has so said is not prepared, whenever pubhc sentiment 
is so far advanced as to justify it, to say the other. 

This is but an opinion, and the opinion of one very humble man ; 
but it is my opinion that the Dred Scott decision, as it is, never would 
have been made in its present form if the party that made it had not 
been sustained previously by the elections. My own opinion is that the 
new Dred Scott decision, deciding against the riglit of the people of 
the States to exclude slavery, will never be made if that party is not 
sustained by the elections. I believe, further, that it is just as siu'e 
to be made as to-morrow is to come, if that party shall be sustained. 
I have said upon a former occasion, and I repeat it now, that the 
coiu'se of argument that Judge Douglas makes use of upon this sub- 
ject (I charge not his motives in this) is preparing the public mind 
for that new Dred Scott decision. I have asked him again to point 
out to me the reasons for his first adherence to the Dred Scott de- 
cision as it is. I have turned his attention to the fact that General 
Jackson differed with him in regard to the political obligation of a 
Supreme Court decision. I have asked his attention to the fact that 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 447 

Jefferson differed with him iu regard to the poUtical obligation of a 
Supreme Court decision. Jefferson said that "judges are as honest 
as other men, and not more so." And he said, substantially, that 
whenever a free people should give up in absolute submission to 
any department of government, retaining for themselves no appeal 
from it, theii* liberties were gone. I have asked his attention to the 
fact that the Cincinnati platform, upon which he says he stands, dis- 
regards a time-honored decision of the Supreme Court, in defying 
the power of Congress to establish a national bank. I have asked 
liis attention to the fact that he himself was one of the most active 
instruments at one time in breaking down the Supreme Court of the 
State of Illinois, because it had made a decision distasteful to him — 
a struggle ending in the remarkable circiunstance of his sitting down 
as one of the new judges who were to overslaugh that decision, 
getting his title of judge in that very way. 

So far in this controversy I can get no answer at all fi'om Judge 
Douglas upon these subjects. Not one can I get from him, except 
that he swells himself up and says : "All of us who stand by the de- 
cision of the Supreme Coui-t are the friends of the Constitution; 
all you fellows that dare question it in any way are the enemies of the 
Constitution." Now in this very devoted adlierence to this decision, 
in opposition to all the great political leaders whom he has recog- 
nized as leaders — in opposition to his former self and history, there 
is something very marked. And the manner iu which he adheres 
to it — not as being right upon the merits, as he conceives (because 
he did not discuss that at all), but as being absolutely obligatory upon 
every one simply because of the soui'ce from whence it comes — as 
that which no man can gainsay, whatever it may be — this is another 
marked feature of his adherence to that decision. It marks it in this 
respect, that it commits him to the next decision, whenever it comes, 
as being as obligatory as this one, since he does not investigate it, 
and won't inquire whether this opinion is right or wi'ong. So he 
takes the next one without inquiring whether it is right or wrong. 
He teaches men this doctrine, and in so doing prepares the public 
mind to take the next decision when it comes without any inquiry. 
In this I think I argue faMy (without questioning motives at all) 
that Judge Douglas is most ingeniously and powerfully preparing 
the public mind to take that decision when it comes ; and not only 
so, but he is doing it in various other ways. In these general maxims 
about Uberty — in his assertions that he " don't care whether slavery 
is voted up or voted down " ; that " whoever wants slavery has a 
right to have it " ; that " upon principles of equality it should be al- 
lowed to go everywhere"; that "there is no inconsistency between 
free and slave institutions" — in this he is also preparing (whether 
purposely or not) the way for making the institution of slavery 
national. I repeat again, for I wish no misunderstanding, that I do 
not charge that he means it so ; but I call upon your minds to in- 
quire, if you were going to get the best instrument you could, and 
then set it to work in the most ingenious way, to prepare the public 
mind for this movement, operating in the free States, where there is 
now an abhorrence of the institution of slavery, could you find an in- 



448 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

strument so capable of doing it as Judge Douglas, or one employed 
in so apt a way to do it ? 

I have said once before, and I will repeat it now, that Mr. Clay, 
when he was once answering an objection to the Colonization Society, 
that it had a tendency to the ultimate emancipation of the slaves, 
said that ''those who would repress all tendencies to liberty and 
ultimate emancipation must do more than put down the benevolent 
efforts of the Colonization Society — they must go back to the era of 
our liberty and independence, and muzzle the cannon that thunders 
its annual joyous retin-n — they must blot out the moral lights around 
us — they must penetrate the human soul, and eradicate the light of 
reason and the love of liberty " ! And I do think — I lepeat, though 
I said it on a former occasion — that Judge Douglas, and whoever, 
like him, teaches that the negro has no share, humble though it may 
be, in the Declaration of Independence, is going back to the era of 
our Hberty and independence, and, so far as in him lies, muzzling 
the cannon that thunders its annual joyous retm-n ; that he is blow- 
ing out the moral lights around us, when he contends that whoever 
wants slaves has a right to hold them ; that he is penetrating, so far 
as hes in his power, the human soul, and eradicating the light of 
reason and the love of hberty, when he is in every possible way pre- 
paring the public mind, by his vast influence, for making the institu- 
tion of slavery perpetual and national. 

There is, my friends, only one other point to which I will call your 
attention for the remaining time that I have left me, and perhaps I 
shall not occupy the entire time that I have, as that one point may 
not take me clear through it. 

Among the interrogatoiies that Judge Douglas propounded to me 
at Freeport, there was one in about this language : " Are you opposed 
to the acquisition of any f m'ther territory to the United States, unless 
slavery shall first be prohibited therein ? " I answered as I thought, in 
this way, that I am not generally opposed to the acquisition of addi- 
tional territory, and that I would support a proposition for the acquisi- 
tion of additional territory, according as my supporting it was or was 
not calculated to aggravate this slavery question amongst us. I then 
proposed to Judge Douglas another interrogatory, which was correla- 
tive to that : " Are you in favor of acquiring additional territory in 
disregard of how it may affect us upon the slavery question ? " Judge 
Douglas answered — that is, in his own way he answered it. I believe 
that, although he took a good many words to answer it, it was little 
more fully answered than any other. The substance of his answer 
was that this country woidd continue to expand — that it would need 
additional territory — that it was as absurd to suppose that we could 
continue upon oiu* present territory, enlarging in population as we 
are, as it would be to hoop a boy twelve years of age, and expect him 
to grow to man's size without bursting the hoops. I believe it was 
something like that. Consequently he was in favor of the acquisition 
of further territory, as fast as we might need it, in disregard of how- 
it might affect the slaver^^ question. I do not say this as giving his 
exact language, but he said so substantially, and he would leave the 
question of slavery where the temtory was acquired, to be settled by 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 449 

the people of tlie acqiiii'ed territory. [" That 's the doctrine/'j Maybe 
it is ; let us consider that for a while. This will probably, in the run 
of things, become one of the concrete manifestations of this slavery 
question. If Judge Douglas's policy upon this question succeeds and 
gets fairly settled down until all opposition is crushed out, the next 
thing mil be a gi-ab for the territory of poor Mexico, an invasion of 
the rich lands of South America, then the adjoining islands will fol- 
low, each one of which promises additional slave-fields. And this 
question is to be left to the people of those countries for settlement. 
When we shall get Mexico, I don't know whether the judge will be in 
favor of the Mexican people that we get with it settling that question 
for themselves and all others ; because we know the judge has a 
great horror for mongi'els, and I understand that the people of Mex- 
ico are most decidedly a race of mongrels. I understand that there 
is not more than one person there out of eight who is a pm^e white, 
and I suppose from the judge's pre\dous declaration that when we 
get Mexico, or any consideraljle portion of it, he will be in favor of 
these mongrels settling the question, which would bring him some- 
what into collision with his horror of an inferior race. 

It is to be remembered, though, that this power of acquiring 
additional territory is a power confided to the President and Senate 
of the United States. It is a power not under the control of the rep- 
resentatives of the people any further than they, the President and 
the Senate, can be considered the representatives of the people. Let 
me illustrate that by a case we have in oiu* history. When we ac- 
(piired the territory from Mexico in the Mexican war, the House of 
Kepresentatives, composed of the immediate representatives of the 
people, all the time insisted that the territory thus to be acquired 
sliould be brought in upon condition that slavery should be forever 
prohibited therein, upon the terms and in the language that slavery 
had been prohibited from coming into this country. That was in- 
sisted upon constantly, and never failed to call forth an assurance that 
any territory thus acquired should have that prohibition in it, so far 
as the House of Representatives was concerned. But at last the Pres- 
ident and Senate acquired the teiritory without asking the House of 
Representatives anything about it, and took it without that prohibi- 
tion. They have the power of acquiring territory without the imme- 
diate representatives of the people being called upon to say anything 
about it, thus furnishing a very apt and powerful means of bring- 
ing new territory into the Union, and, when it is once brought into the 
country, involving us anew in this slavery agitation. It is therefore, 
as I think, a very important question for the consideration of the 
American people, whether the policy of bringing in additional ter- 
ritory, without considering at all how it will operate upon the safety 
of the Union in reference to this one great disturbing element in 
our national politics, shall be adopted as the policy of the country. 
You will bear in mind that it is to be acquired, according to the 
judge's view, as fast as it is needed, and the indefinite part of this 
proposition is that we have only Judge Douglas and his class of men 
to decide how fast it is needed. We have no clear and certain way 
of determining or demonstrating how fast territory is needed by the 
Vol. I.— 29. 



450 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

necessities of the country. Whoever wants to go, out filibustering, 
then, thinks that more temtory is needed. Whoever wants wider 
slave-fields feels sure that some additional territory is needed as 
slave territory. Then it is as easy to show the necessity of addi- 
tional slave ten-itory as it is to assert anything that is incapable of 
absolute demonstration. Whatever motive a man or a set of men 
may have for making annexation of property or territory, it is very 
easy to assert, but much less easy to disprove, that it is necessary for 
the wants of the country. 

And now it only remains for me to say that I think it is a very 
grave question for the people of this Union to consider whether, in 
view of the fact that this slaveiy question has been the only one 
that has ever endangered our repubhcan institiitions — the only one 
that has ever threatened or menaced a dissolution of the Union — that 
has ever disturbed us in such a way as to make us fear for the per- 
petuity of our liberty — in view of these facts, I think it is an exceed- 
ingly interesting and important question for this people to consider 
whether we shall engage in the policy of acquiring additional teiTi- 
toiy, discarding altogether from our consideration, while obtaining 
new territory, the question how it may affect us in regard to this the 
only endangering element to our liberties and national greatness. 
The judge's view has been expressed. I, in my answer to his ques- 
tion, have expressed mine. I think it will become an important and 
practical question. Our views are before the public. I am willing 
and anxious that they should consider them fully — that they should 
turn it about and consider the importance of the question, and amve 
at a just conclusion as to whether it is or is not wise in the people of 
this tJnion, in the acquisition of new territory, to consider whether it 
will add to the disturbance that is existing among us — whether it 
will add to the one only danger that has ever threatened the per- 
petuity of the Union or our own liberties. I think it is extremely 
important that they shall decide, and rightly decide, that question 
before entering upon that policy. 

And now, my friends, having said the little I wish to say upon this 
head, whether I have occupied the whole of the remnant of my time 
or not, I believe I could not enter upon any new topic so as to treat 
it fully Avithout transcending my time, which I would not for a mo- 
ment think of doing. I give way to Judge Douglas. 

Mr. Douglases Rejoinder in the Galeshurg Joint Debate. 

Gentlemen : The highest compliment you can pay me during the 
brief half -hour that I have to conclude is by observing a strict silence. 
I desire to be heard rather than to be applauded. 

The first criticism that Mr. Lincoln makes on my speech was that 
it was in substance what I have said everywhere else in the State 
where I have addressed the people. I wish I could say the same of 
his speech. Wliy, the reason I complain of him is because he makes 
one speech north and another south. Because he has one set of sen- 
timents for the Abolition counties, and another set for the counties 
opposed to Abolitionism. My point of complaint against him is that 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 451 

I cannot induce him to hold up the same standard, to carry the same 
flag in all parts of the State. He does not pretend, and no other man 
will, that I have one set of principles for Galesbui'g and another for 
Charleston. He does not pretend that I hold to one doctrine in 
Chicago and an opposite one in Jonesboro. I have proved that he 
has a different set of principles for each of these locaUties. All I 
asked of him was that he should deliver the speech that he has made 
here to-day in Coles County instead of in old Knox. It would have 
settled the question between us in that doubtful county. Here I 
understand him to reaffirm the doctrine of negro equality, and to as- 
sert that by the Declaration of Independence the negi*o is declared 
equal to the white man. He tells you to-day that the negro was in- 
cluded in the Declaration of Independence when it asserted that all 
men were created equal. [ " We believe it." j Very well. 

Mr. Lincoln asserts to-day, as he did at Chicago, that the negi'o was 
included in that clause of the Declaration of Independence which says 
that all men were created equal, and endowed by the Creator with cer- 
tain inalienable rights, among which are Uf e, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness. If the negro was made his equal and mine, if that 
equality was established by divine law, and was the negi'o's inalien- 
able right, how came he to say at Charleston to the Kentuckiaus 
residing in that section of oiu' State, that the negro was physically 
inferior to the white man, belonged to an inferior race, and he was 
for keeping him always in that inferior condition. I wish you to 
bear these things in mind. At Charleston he said that the negro 
belonged to an inferior race, and that he was for keeping him in 
that inferior condition. There he gave the people to understand 
that there was no moral question involved, because the inferiority 
being established, it was only a question of degree and not a ques- 
tion of right ; here, to-day, instead of making it a question of degree, 
he makes it a moral question, says that it is a gi-eat crime to hold the 
negi'o in that inferior condition. [" He 's right."] Is he right now, 
or was he right in Charleston? [" Both."] He is right then, sir, in 
your estimation, not because he is consistent, but because he can 
trim his principles any way in any section, so as to secure votes. 
All I desire of him is that he will declare the same principles in the 
south that he does in the north. 

But did you notice how he answered my position that a man should 
hold the same doctrines throughout the length and breadtli of this 
republic ? He said, " Would Judge Douglas go to Russia and pro- 
claim the same principles he does here ? " I would remind him that 
Russia is not under the American Constitution. If Russia was a 

fart of the American republic, under our Federal Constitution, and 
was sworn to support the Constitution, I would maintain the same 
doctrine in Russia that I do in IlHnois. The slaveholding States are 
governed by the same Federal Constitution as ourselves, and hence 
a man's principles, in order to be in harmony with the Constitution, 
must be the same in the South as they are in the North, the same in 
the free States as they are in the slave States. Wlienever a man ad- 
vocates one set of principles in one section, and another set in another 
section, his opinions are in violation of the spmt of the Constitution 



452 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN 

which he has sworn to support. When Mr. Lincoln went to Congress 
in 1847, and, hipng his hand iipon the Holy Evangelists, made a solemn 
vow in the presence of high Heaven that he would be faithful to the 
Constitution — what did he mean? the Constitution as he expounds 
it in Galesburg, or the Constitution as he expounds it in Charleston. 
Mr. Lincoln has devoted considerable time to the circumstance 
that at Ottawa I read a series of resolutions as having been adopted 
at Springfield, in this State, on the 4th or 5th of October, 1854, which 
happened not to have been adopted there. He has used hard names ; 
has dared to talk about fraud, about forgery, and has insinuated 
that there was a conspiracy between Mr. Lanphier, Mr. Harris, and 
myself to perpetrate a forgery. Now, beai* in mind that he does not 
deny that these resolutions were adopted in a majority of all the 
Republican counties of this State in that year ; he does not deny that 
they were declared to be the platform of this Republican party in 
the first congressional district, in the second, in the third, and 
in many counties of the fourth, and that they thus became the 
platform of his party in a majority of the counties upon which he 
now rehes for support ; he does not deny the truthfulness of the res- 
olutions, but takes exception to the spot on which they were adopted. 
He takes to himself gi'eat merit because he thinks they were not 
adopted on the right spot for me to use them against liimj just as he 
was very severe in Congi'ess upon the government of his country, 
when he thought that he had discovered that the Mexican war was 
not begun in the right spot, and was therefore unjust. He tries 
ver}^ hard to make out that there is something very extraordinary in 
the place where the thing was done, and not in the thing itself. I 
never believed before that Abraham Lincoln would be giiilty of what 
he has done this day in regard to those resolutions. In the first 
place, the moment it was intimated to me that they had been adopted 
at Aiu'ora and Roclcford instead of Springfield, I did not wait for 
him to call my attention to the fact, but led off and explained in my 
first meeting after the Ottawa debate, what the mistake was and how 
it had been made. I supposed that for an honest man, conscious of 
his own rectitude, that explanation would be sufficient. I did not 
wait fov him, after the mistake was made, to call my attention to it, 
but frankly explained it at once as an honest man would. I also 
gave the authority on which I had stated that these resolutions were 
adopted by the Springfield Republican convention ; that I had seen 
them quoted by Major Harris in a deljate in Congress, as having 
been adopted by the first Republican State convention in Ilhnois, 
and that I had wi-itten to him and asked him for the authority as to 
the time and place of their adoption ; that Major Harris being ex- 
tremely ill, Charles H. Lanphier had written to me for him that they 
were adopted at Springfield, on the 5th of October, 1854, and had 
sent me a copy of the Springfield paper containing them. I read 
them from the newspaper just as Mr. Lincoln reads the proceedings 
of meetings held years ago from the newspapers. After giving that 
explanation, I did not think there was an honest man in the State of 
Illinois who doubted that I had been led into the error, if it was such, 
innocently, in the way I detailed ; and I will now say that I do not 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 453 

now believe that there is an honest man on the face of the globe who 
will not regard with abhon-ence and dis^ist Mr. Lincoln's insinua- 
tions of mv complicity in that forgery, if it was a forgery. Does Mr. 
Lincoln wish to push these things to the point of personal difficulties 
here ? I commenced this contest by treating him courteously and 
kindly ; I always spoke of him in words of respect, and in return he 
has sought, and is now seeking, to divert pubhc attention from the 
enormity of his revolutionary principles by impeaching men's sin- 
cei'ity and integrity, and in\dting personal quarrels. 

I desired to conduct this contest with him like a gentleman, but I 
spurn the insinuation of complicity and fraud made upon the simple 
circumstaiK^e of an editor of a newspapei' having made a mistake as 
to the place where a thing was done, but not as to the thing itself. 
Tliese resolutions were the platform of this Republican party of Mr. 
Lincoln's of that year. They were adopted in a majority of the Repub- 
lican counties inthe State ; and when I asked him at Ottawa whether 
they formed the platform upon which he stood, he did not answer, 
and I could not get an answer out of limi. He then thought, as I 
thought, that those resolutions were adopted at the Springfield con- 
vention, but excused himself by saying that he was not there when 
they were adopted, but had gone to Tazewell coiu't in order to avoid 
being present at the convention. He saw them published as having 
been adopted at Springfield, and so did I, and he knew that if there 
was a mistake in regard to them, that I had nothing under heaven to 
do with it. Besides, you find that in all these northern counties 
where the Republican candidates are running pledged to him, that 
the conventions which nominated them adopted that identical plat- 
form. One cardinal point in that platform which he shrinks from is 
this — that there shall be no more slave States admitted into the 
Union, even if the people want them. Lovejoy stands pledged against 
the admission of any more slave States. [''Right; so do we."] So 
do you, you say. Farnsworth stands pledged against the admission 
of any more slave States. Washburne stands pledged the same way. 
The candidate for the legislature who is running on Lincoln's ticket 
in Henderson and Warren stands committed by his vote in the legis- 
lature to the same thing, and I am informed, but do not know of 
the fact, that your candidate here is also so pledged. [" Hurrah for 
him ! Good ! "[ Now, you Republicans all hun-ah for him, and for the 
doctrine of " no more slave States," and yet Lincoln tells you that his 
conscience will not permit him to sanction that doctrine, and com- 
plains because the resolutions I read at Ottawa made him, as a mem- 
ber of the party, responsible for sanctioning the doctrine of no more 
slave States. You are (me way, you confess, and he is or pretends to 
be the other, and yet you are both governed by principle in support- 
ing one another. If it be true, as I have shown it is, that the whole 
Repuy)lican party in the northern part of the State stands committed 
to the doctrine of no more slave States, and that this same doctrine 
is repudiated by the Republicans in the other part of the State, I 
wonder whether Mr. Lincoln and his party do not present the case 
which he cited from the Scriptures, of a house divided against itself 
which cannot stand ! I desire to know what are Mr. Lincoln's princi- 



454 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

pies and the principles of his party. I hold, and the party with 
which I am identified holds, that the people of each State, old and 
new, have the right to decide the slavery question for themselves, 
and when I used the remark that I did not care whether slavery was 
voted up or down, I used it in the connection that I was for allowing 
Kansas to do just as she pleased on the slavery question. I said that 
I did not care whether they voted slavery up or down, because they 
had the right to do as they pleased on the question, and therefore my 
action would not be controlled by any such consideration. Why can- 
not Abraham Lincoln, and the party with which he acts, speak out 
their principles so that they may be understood ? Why do they claim 
to be one thing in one part of the State and another in the other part! 
Whenever I allude to the Abolition doctrines, which he considers a 
slander to be charged with being in favor of, you all indorse them, 
and hurrah for them, not knowing that your candidate is ashamed to 
acknowledge them. 

I have a few words to say upon the Dred Scott decision, which 
has troubled the brain of Mr. Lincoln so much. He insists that that 
decision would carry slavery into the free States, notwithstanding 
that the decision says directly the opposite ; and goes into a long 
argument to make you believe that I am in favor of, and would sanc- 
tion, the doctrine that would allow slaves to be brought here and held 
as slaves contrary to our constitution and laws. Mr. Lincoln knew 
better when he asserted this ; he knew that one newspaper, and so 
far as is within my knowledge but one, ever asserted that doctrine, 
and that I was the fii-st man in either House of Congress that read 
that article in debate, and denounced it on the floor of the Senate as 
revolutionary. When the Washington " Union," on the 1 7th of last 
November, published an article to that effect, I branded it at once, 
and denounced it, and hence the ''Union" has been pursuing me ever 
since. Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, replied to me, and said that there 
was not a man in any of the slave States south of the Potomac River 
that held any such doctrine. Mr. Lincoln knows that there is not a 
member of the Supreme Court who holds that doctrine; he knows 
that every one of them, as shown by their opinions, holds the reverse. 
Why this attempt, then, to bring the Supreme Court into disrepute 
among the people 1 It looks as if there was an effort being niade to de- 
stroy public confidence in the highest judicial tribunal on earth. Sup- 
pose he succeeds in destroying public confidence in the court, so that 
the people will not respect its decisions, but will feel at lil^erty to dis- 
regard them, and resist the laws of the land, what will he have gained? 
He will have changed the government from one of laws into that of 
a mob, in which the strong arm of violence will be substituted for the 
decisions of the com'ts of justice. He complains because I did not go 
into an argument reviewing Chief Justice Taney's opinion, and the 
other opinions of the different judges, to determine whether their 
reasoning is right or wrong on the questions of law. Wliat use would 
that be ? He wants to take an appeal from the Supreme Court to this 
meeting to determine whether the questions of law were decided 
properly. He is going to appeal from the Siipreme Court of the 
United States to every town meeting, in the hope that he can excite 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 455 

a prejudice against that court, and on the wave of that prejudice ride 
into the Senate of the United States, when he could not get there on 
his own principles, or his own merits. Suppose he should succeed 
in getting into the Senate of the United States, what then will he 
have to do \\dth the decision of the Supreme Coiu't in the Dred Scott 
case ? Can he reverse that decision when he gets there f Can he act 
upon it? Has the Senate anv right to reverse it or revise it! He 
will not pretend that it has. I'hen why drag the matter into this con- 
test, unless for the purpose of making a false issue, by which he can 
divert public attention from the real issue. 

He has cited General Jackson in justification of the war he is 
making on the decision of the com-t. Mr. Lincoln misunderstands 
the history of the country if he believes there is any parallel in the 
two cases. It is true that the Supreme Court once decided that if a 
bank of the United States was a necessary fiscal agent of the govern- 
ment it was constitutional, and if not, that it was unconstitutional, 
and also, that whether or not it was necessaiy for that pm-pose was 
a political question for Congress, and not a judicial one for the courts 
to determine. Hence the court would not determine the bank uncon- 
stitutional. Jackson respected the decision, obeyed the law, executed 
it, and carried it into effect during its existence ; but after the char- 
ter of the bank expired, and a proposition was made to create a new 
bank, General Jackson said: '*It is unnecessary and improper, and 
therefore I am against it on constitutional grounds as well as those 
of expediency." Is Congi-ess bound to pass every act that is con- 
stitutional '? Wliy, there are a thousand tilings that are constitu- 
tional, but yet are inexpedient and unnecessary, and you surely would 
not vote for them merely because you had the right to ? And because 
General Jackson would not do a thing which he had a right to do, but 
did not deem expedient or proper, Mr. Lincoln is going to justify 
himself in doing that which he has no right to do. I ask him whether 
he is not bound to respect and obey the decisions of the Supreme 
Court as well as I? The Constitution has created that court to 
decide all constitutional questions in the last resort, and when such 
decisions have been made they become the law of the land, and you, 
and he, and myself, and every other good citizen are bound by them. 
Yet he argues that I am bound by then* decisions, and he is not. He 
says that their decisions are binding on Democrats, but not on Re- 
publicans. Are not Republicans bound by the laws of the laud as 
well as Democrats '? And when the court has fixed the construction 
of the Constitution on the validity of a given law, is not their deci- 
sion binding upon Republicans as well as upon Democrats ? Is it pos- 
sible that you Republicans have the right to raise your mobs and 
oppose the laws of the land and the constituted authorities, and yet 
hold us Democrats bound to obey them ? My time is within half a 
minute of expiring, and all I have to say is that I stand by the laws 
of the land. I stand by the Constitution as om* fathers made it, by 
the laws as they are enacted, and by the decisions of the court upon 
all points within their jurisdiction as they are pronounced by the 
highest tribunal on earth ; and any man who resists these must re- 
sort to mob-law and violence to overturn the government of laws. 



456 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

October 13, 1858.— Sixth Joint Debate, at Quincy, Illinois. 
Mr. LincoMs Opening Speech. 

Ladies arid Gentlemen : I have had no immediate conference with 
Judge Douglas, but I will venture to say that he and I will perfectly 
agree that your entire silence, both when I speak and when he speaks, 
will be most agreeable to us. 

In the monui of May, 1856, the elements in the State of Illinois 
which have since been consolidated into the Republican party assem- 
bled together in a State convention at Bloomington. They adopted 
at that time what, in poKtical language, is called a platform. In 
June of the same year, the elements of the Republican pai'ty in the 
nation assembled together in a national convention at Philadelphia. 
They adopted what is called the national platform. In June, 1858, — 
the present year, — the Repubhcans of Illinois reassembled at Spring- 
field in State convention, and adopted again their platform, as I 
suppose, not differing in any essential particular from either of the 
former ones, but perhaps adding something in relation to the new 
developments of political progress in the country. 

The convention that assembled in June last did me the honor, if it 
be one, and I esteem it such, to nominate me as their candidate for 
the United States Senate. I have supposed that, in entering upon 
this canvass, I stood generally upon these platforms. We are now 
met together on the 13th of October of the same year, only four 
months from the adoption of the last platform, and I am unaware 
that in this canvass, from the beginning until to-day, any one of our 
adversaries has taken hold of oui* platforms, or laid his finger upon 
anything he calls wrong in them. 

In the very first one of these joint discussions between Senator 
Douglas and myself, Senator Douglas, without alluding at all to 
these platforms, or to any one of them, of which I have spoken, at- 
tempted to hold me responsible for a set of resolutions passed long 
before the meeting of either one of these conventions of which I have 
spoken. And as a ground for holding me responsible for these res- 
olutions, he assumed that they had been passed at a State conven- 
tion of the Republican party, and that I took part in that convention. 
It was discovered afterward that this was erroneous, that the resolu- 
tions which he endeavored to hold me responsible for had not been 
passed by any State convention anj^where, had not been j)assc(l 
at Springfield, where he supposed they had, or assumed that they 
had, and that they liad been passed in no convention in which I had 
taken part. The judge, nevertheless, was not willing to give up the 
point that he was endeavoring to make upon me, and he therefore 
thought to still hold me to the point that he was endeavoring to 
make, by showing that the resolutions that he read had been passed 
at a local convention in the northern part of the State, although it 
was not a local convention that embraced my residence at all, nor 
one that reached, as I suppose, nearer than one hundred and fifty or 
two hundred miles of where I was when it met, nor one in which I 
took any part at all. He also introduced other resolutions, passed 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 457 

at other meetings, and by combining the whole, although they were 
all antecedent to the two State conventions, and the one national 
convention I have mentioned, still he insisted and now insists, as I 
understand, that I am in some way responsible for them. 

At Jouesboro, on our third meeting, I insisted to the judge that I 
was in no way rightfully held responsible for the proceedings of this 
local meeting or convention m which I had taken no part, and in 
which I was in no way embraced ; but I insisted to him that if he 
thought I was responsible for every man or every set of men every- 
where, who happen to be my friends, the rule ought to work both 
ways, and he ought to be responsible for the acts and resolutions of 
all men or sets of men who were or are now his supporters and 
friends, and gave him a pretty long string of resolutions, passed by 
men avIio are now his friends, and announcing doctrines for which 
he does not desire to be held responsible. 

This still does not satisfy Judge Douglas. He still adheres to his 
proposition, that I am responsible for what some of my friends in 
different parts of the State have done : but that he is not responsible 
for what his have done. At least, so I understand him. But, in ad- 
dition to that, the judge, at om* meeting in Galesburg last week, 
undertakes to establish that I am guilty of a species of double-deal- 
ing with the public — that I make speeches of a certain sort in the 
North, among the Abolitionists, which I would not make in the South, 
and that I make speeches of a certain sort in the South which I would 
not make in the North. I apprehend, in the course I have marked 
out for myself, that I shall not have to dwell at very great length upon 
this subject. 

As this was done in the judge's opening speech at Galesburg, I 
had an opjjortuiiity, as I had the middle speech then, of saying some- 
thing in answer to it. He brought forward a quotation or two from 
a speech of mine, delivered at Chicago, and then, to contrast with it, 
he brought forward an extract from a speech of mine at Charleston, 
in which he insisted that I was greatly inconsistent, and insisted that 
his conclusion followed that I was plajdng a double part, and speak- 
ing in one i-egion one way, and in another region another way. I have 
not time now to dwell on tliis as long as I would like, and wish only 
now to requote that portion of my speech at Charleston, which the 
judge quoted, and then make some comments upon it. This he quotes 
from me as being delivered at Charleston, and I believe con-ectly : 

I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing 
about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black 
races — that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors 
of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermaiTV with 
white people ; and I \v]l\ say in addition to this that there is a physical differ- 
ence between the white and black races which will ever forbid the two races 
living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as 
they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the posi- 
tion of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor 
of having the superior position assigned to the white race. 

This, I believe, is the entire quotation from the Charleston speech, 
as Judge Douglas made it. His comments are as follows : 



458 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

Yes, here you find men who hurrah for Lincoln, and say he is right when 
he discards all distinction between races, or when he declares that he discards 
the doctrine that there is such a thing as a superior and inferior race ; and 
Abolitionists are required and expected to vote for Mr. Lincoln because he 
goes for the equality of races, holding that in the Declaration of Independence 
the white man and negro were declared equal, and endowed by divine law 
with equality. And down South with the old-hne Whigs, wi'th the Ken- 
tuckians, the Virginians, and the Tennesseeans, he tells you that there is 
a physical difference between the races, making the one superior, the other 
inferior, and he is in favor of maintaining the superiority of the white race 
over the negro. 

Those are the judge's comments. Now I wish to show you, that a 
month, or only lacMug three days of a month, before I made the 
speech at Charleston which the judge quotes from, he had himself 
heard me say substantially the same thing. It was in om* fii-st meet- 
ing, at Ottawa, and I will say a word about where it was, and the 
atmosphere it was in, after a while — but at our first meeting, at Ot- 
tawa, I read an extract from an old speech of mine, made nearly foiir 
years ago, not merely to show my sentiments, but to show that my 
sentiments were long entertained and openly expressed ; in which 
extract I expressly declared that my own feelings would not admit 
of a social and political equality between the white and black races, 
and that even if my own feelings would admit of it, I still knew that 
the public sentiment of the country would not, and that such a thing 
was an utter impossibility, or substantially that. That extract from 
my old speech, the reporters, by some sort of accident, passed over, 
and it was not reported. I lay no blame upon anybody. I suppose 
they thought that I would hand it over to them, and di'opped report- 
ing while 1 was reading it, but afterward went away without getting 
it from me. At the end of that quotation from my old speech, which 
I read at Ottawa, I made the comments which were reported at that 
time, and which I will now read, and ask you to notice how very 
nearly they are the same as Judge Douglas says were delivered by 
me, down in Egypt. After reading I added these words : 

Now, gentlemen, I don't want to read at any greater length, but this is 
the true complexion of all I have ever said in regard to the institution of 
slavery, or the black race, and this is the whole of it ; and an>i;hing that ar- 
gues me into liis idea of perfect social and political equality with the negro is 
but a specious and fantastical arrangement of words by which a man can 
prove a horse-chestnut to be a chestnut horse. I will say here, while upon 
this subject, that I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with 
the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no 
lawful right to do so, and I have no incUnation to do so. I have no purpose 
to introduce pohtical and social equality between the white and black races. 
There is a physical difference between the two, which, in my judgment, will 
probably forever forbid their living together on the footing of perfect equal- 
ity, and, inasmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a difference, 
I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong hav- 
ing the superior position. I have never said anything to the contrary, but I 
hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the 
negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration 
of Independence — the right to Ufe, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I 
hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 459 

Judge Douglas that he is not my equal in many respects, certainly not in 
color — perhaps not in intellectual and moral endowments; but in the right 
to eat the bread, without the leave of anybody else, which his own hand 
earns, he is my equal, and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of 
every living man. 

I have chiefly introduced this for the purpose of meeting the judge's 
charge that the quotation he took from my Charleston speech was 
what I would say down south among the Kentuckians, the Virginians, 
etc., but would not say in the regions in which was supposed to be 
more of the Abolition element. I now make this comment : that 
speech from which I have now read the quotation, and which is there 
given correctly, perhaps too much so for good taste, was made away 
up north in the Abolition district of this State par excellence — in 
the Lovejoy district — in the personal presence of Lovejoy ; for he 
was on the stand with us when I made it. It had been made and 
put in print in that region only three days less than a month before 
the speech made at Charleston, the like of which Judge Douglas 
thinks I would not make where there was any Abolition element. 
I only refer to this matter to say that I am altogether unconscious 
of having attempted any double-dealing anywhere; that upon one 
occasion I may say one thing and leave other things unsaid, and vice 
versa; but that I have said anything on one occasion that is incon- 
sistent with what I have said elsewhere, I deny — at least, I deny it 
so far as the intention is concerned. I find that I have devoted to 
this topic a larger portion of my time than I had intended. I wished 
to show — but I will pass it upon this occasion — that in the sentiment 
I have occasionally advanced upon the Declaration of Independence, 
I am entirely borne out by the sentiments advanced by om* old Whig 
leader, Henry Clay, and I have the book here to show it from ; but 
because I have already occupied more time than I intended to do on 
that topic, I pass over it. 

At Galesbui'g I tried to show that by the Dred Scott decision, 
pushed to its legitimate consequences, slavery would be established 
in all the States as well as in the Territories. I did this because, 
upon a former occasion, I had asked Judge Douglas whether, if the 
Supreme Court should make a decision declaring that the States had 
not the power to exclude slavery from their limits, he would adopt 
and follow that decision as a rule of political action ; and because he 
had not directly answered that question, but had merely contented 
himself with sneering at it, I again introduced it, and tried to show 
that the conclusion that I stated followed inevitably and logically 
from the proposition ah-eady decided by the court. Judge Douglas 
had the privilege of replying to me at Galesbm*g, and again he 
gave me no direct answer as to whether he would or would not sus- 
tain such decision if made. I give him this third chance to say 
yes or no. He is not obhged to do either, — probably he will not do 
either, — but I give him the third chance. I tried to show then that 
this result, this conclusion, inevitably followed from the point already 
decided by the court. The judge, in his reply, again sneers at the 
thought of the court making any such decision, and in the course of 
his remarks upon this subject, uses the language which I will now 



460 ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OP ABBAHAM LINCOLN 

read. Speaking of me, the judge says: "He goes on and insists 
that the Dred Scott decision would carry slavery into the free 
States, notwithstanding the decision itself says the contrary." And 
he adds : " Mr. Lincoln knows that there is no member of the Su- 
preme Court that holds that doctrine. He knows that every one of 
them in their opinions held the reverse." 

I especially introduce this subject again for the pui-pose of saying 
that I have the Dred Scott decision here, and I will thank Judge 
Douglas to lay his finger upon the place in the entire opinions of the 
court where any one of them "says the contrary." It is very hard to 
affirm a negative mth entire confidence. I say, however, tliat I have 
examined that decision with a good deal of care, as a lawyer ex- 
amines a decision, and so far as I have been able to do so, the com-t 
has nowhere in its opinions said that the States have the power to 
exclude slavery, nor have they used other language substantially that, 
I also say, so far as I can find, not one of the concun-in^ judges has 
said that the States can exclude slavery, nor said anything that was 
substantially that. The nearest approach that any one of them has 
made to it, so far as I can find, was by Judge Nelson, and the approach 
he made to it was exactly, in substance, the Nebraska bill — that 
the States had the exclusive power over the question of slavery, so 
far as they are not limited by the Constitution of the United States. 
I ask the question, therefore, if the non-concumng judges, McLean 
or Ciu'tis, had asked to get an express declaration that the States 
could absolutely exclude slavery from their limits, what reason 
have we to believe that it would not have been voted down by the 
majority of the judges, just as Chase's amendment was voted down 
by Judge Douglas and his compeers when it was offered to the 
Nebraska bill"? 

Also at Clalesburg I said something in regard to those Springfield 
resolutions that Judge Douglas had attempted to use upon me at 
Ottawa, and commented at some length upon the fact that they were, 
as presented, not genuine. Judge Douglas in his reply to me seemed 
to be somewhat exasperated. He said he never would have believed 
that Abraham Lincoln, as he kindly called me, would have attempted 
such a thing as I had attempted upon that occasion ; and among 
other expressions which he used toward me, was that I dared to say 
forgery — that I had dared to say forgery [turning to Judge Doug- 
las]. Yes, judge, I did dare to say forgery. But in this poHtical 
canvass the judge ought to remember that I was not the first who 
dared to say forgeiy. At Jacksonville Judge Douglas made a speech 
in answer to something said by Judge Trumbull, and at the close of 
what he said upon that subject, he dared to say that Trumbull had 
forged his evidence. He said, too, that he should not concern him- 
self with Trumbull any more, but thereafter he should hold Lincoln 
responsible for the slanders upon him. When I met him at Charles- 
ton after that, althougli I think that I should not have noticed the 
subject if he had not said he would hold me responsible for it, I 
spread out before him the statements of the evidence that Judge 
Trumbull had used, and I asked Judge Douglas, piece by piece, to put 
his finger upon one piece of all that evidence that he would say was 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 461 

a forgeiy. Wlien I went through with each and every piece, Judge 
Douglas'^ did not dare then to say that any piece of it was a forgery. 
So it seems that there are some things that Judge Douglas dares to 
do, and some that he dares not to do. [A voice : " It 's the same thing 
with you."] Yes, sir, it 's the same thing with me. 

I do dare to say forgery when it 's true, and don't dare to say for- 
gery when it 's false. Now, I will say here to this audience and to 
Judge Douglas, I have not dared to say he committed a forgery, and 
I never shall until I know it ; but I did dare to say — just to suggest 
to the judge — that a forgery had been committed, which by his o^vn 
showing had been traced to hmi and two of his friends. I dared to 
suggest to him that he had expressly promised in one of his public 
speeches to investigate that matter, and I dared to sugt^est to him 
that there was an implied promise that when he investigated it he 
would make known the result. I dared to suggest to the judge that 
he could not expect to be quite clear of suspicion of that fraud, for 
since the time that promise was made he had been with those friends, 
and had not kept his promise in regard to the investigation and the 
report upon it. I am not a very daring man, but I dared that much, 
judge, and I am not much scared about it yet. Wlien the judge says 
he would n't have believed of Abraham Lincoln that he would have 
made such an attempt as that, he reminds me of the fact that he en- 
tered upon this canvass with the purpose to treat me courteously ; 
that touched me somewhat. It set me to thinking. I was aware, 
when it was fii'st agreed that Judge Douglas and I were to have 
these seven joint discussions, that they were the successive acts of a 
drama — perhaps I should say, to be enacted not merely in the face 
of audiences hke this, but in the face of the nation, and to some ex- 
tent, by my relation to him, and not from anything in myself, in the 
face of the world; and I am anxious that they should be conducted 
with dignity and in the good temper which would be befitting the 
vast audience before which it was conducted. But when Jud^e 
Douglas got home from Washington and made his first speech m 
Chicago, the evening afterward I made some sort of a reply to it. 
His second speech was made at Bloomington, in which he commented 
upon my speech at Chicago, and said that I had used language in- 
geniously contrived to conceal my intentions, or words to that eflfect. 
Now I understand that this is an imputation upon my veracity and 
my candor. I do not know what the judge understood by it, ])ut in 
oiir first discussion at Ottawa, he led off by charging a bargain, 
somewhat corrupt in its character, upon Trumbull and myself — that 
we had entered into a bargain, one of the terms of which was that 
Trumbull was to Abolitionize the old Democratic party, and I, Lin- 
coln, was to Abolitionize the Old Whig party — I pretending to be 
as good an old-line Whig as CA^er. Judge Douglas may not under- 
stand that he implicated my truthfulness and my honor when he said 
I was doing one thing and pretending another ; and I misunderstood 
him if he thought he was treating me in a dignified way, as a man of 
honor and timth, as he now claims he was disposed to treat me. Even 
after that time, at Galesbm-g, when he brings forward an extract 
from a speech made at Chicago, and an extract from a speech made 



462 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABBAHAM LINCOLN 

at Charleston, to prove that I was trying to play a double part, — that 
I was trying to cheat the public, and get votes upon one set of prin- 
ciples at one place and upon another set of principles at another 
place, — I do not understand but what he impeaches my honor, my 
veracity, and my candor ; and because he does this, I do not under- 
stand that I am bound, if I see a truthful ground for it, to keep my 
hands off of him. As soon as I learned that Judge Douglas was dis- 

fosed to treat me in this way, I signified in one of my speeches that 
should be di'iven to draw upon whatever of humble resources I 
might have — to adopt a new course with him. I was not entirely 
sure that I should be able to hold my own with him, but I at least had 
the purpose made to do as well as I could upon him ; and now I sav 
that I will not be the first to cry " Hold ! " I think it originated with 
the judge, and when he quits, I probably will. But I shall not ask 
any favors at all. He asks me, or he asks the audience, if I wish to 
push this matter to the point of personal difficulty. I tell him. No. 
He did not make a mistake, in one of his early speeches, when he 
called me an " amiable " man, though perhaps he did when he called 
me an " intelligent" man. It really hm-ts me very much to suppose 
that I Jiave wronged anybody on earth. I again tell him, No ! I 
very much prefer, when this canvass shall be over, however it may 
result, that we at least part without any bitter recollections of per- 
sonal difficulties. 

The judge, in his concluding speech at Galesburg, says that I 
was pushing this matter to a personal difficulty to avoid the respon- 
sibility for the enormity of my principles. I say to the judge and this 
audience now, that I will again state om* principles as well as I hastily 
can in all their enormity, and if the judge hereafter chooses to con- 
fine himself to a war upon these principles, he will probably not find 
me departing from the same com*se. 

We have in this nation the element of domestic slavery. It is a 
matter of absolute certainty that it is a disturbing element. It is the 
opinion of all the great men who have expressed an opinion upon it, 
that it is a dangerous element. We keep up a controversy in regard 
to it. That controversy necessarily springs from difference of opinion, 
and if we can learn exactly — can reduce to the lowest elements — 
what that difference of opinion is, we perhaps shall be better pre- 
pared for discussing the different systems of policy that we would 
propose in regard to that disturbing element. I suggest that the 
difference of opinion, reduced to its lowest terms, is no other than 
the difference between the men who think slavery a wrong and those 
who do not think it wrong. The Republican party think it wrong 
—we think it is a moral, a social, and a political wi'ong. We think 
it is a wrong not confining itself merely to the persons or the States 
where it exists, but that it is a wrong which in its tendency, to 
say the least, affects the existence of the whole nation. Because we 
think it wrong, we propose a course of pohcy that shall deal with it 
as a wrong. We deal with it as with any other wrong, in so far as 
we can prevent its growing any larger, and so deal with it that in 
the run of time there may be some promise of an end to it. We have 
a due regard to the actual presence of it amongst us, and the difficul- 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 463 

ties of getting rid of it in any satisfactory way, and all the consti- 
tutional obligations thrown about it. I suppose that in reference 
both to its actual existence in the nation, and to om* constitutional 
obligations, we have no right at all to disturb it in the States where 
it exists, and we profess that we have no more inclination to disturb 
it than we have the right to do it. We go further than that : we 
don't propose to disturb it where, in one instance, we think the Con- 
stitution would permit us. We think the Constitution would permit 
us to disturb it in the District of Columbia. Still we do not propose 
to do that, unless it should be in terms which I don't suppose the 
nation is very likely soon to agree to — the terms of making the 
emancipation gradual and compensating the unwilling owners. 
Where we suppose we have the ccmstitutional right, we restrain our- 
selves in reference to the actual existence of the institution and 
the difficulties thrown about it. We also oppose it as an evil so far as 
it seeks to spread itself. We insist on the policy that shall restrict 
it to its present limits. We don't suppose that in doing this we vio- 
late anything due to the actual presence of the institution, or any- 
thing due to the constitutional guaranties thrown around it. 

We oppose the Dred Scott decision in a certain way, upon which 
I ought perhaps to address you a few words. We do not propose that 
when Dred Scott has been decided to be a slave by the court, we, as 
a mob, will decide him to be free. We do not propose that, when 
any other one, or one thousand, shall be decided by that court to be 
slaves, we will in any violent way distm-b the rights of property thus 
settled ; but we nevertheless do oppose that decision as a political 
rule, which shall be binding on the voter to vote for nobody who 
thinks it wrong, which shall be binding on the members of Con- 
gi-ess or the President to favor no measiu-e that does not actually 
concur with the principles of that decision. We do not propose to 
be bound by it as a political rule in that way, because we think 
it lays the foundation not merely of enlarging and spreading out 
what we consider an evil, but it lays the foundation for spreading 
that evil into the States themselves. We propose so resisting it as 
to have it reversed if we can, and a new judicial rule established 
upon this subject. 

I will add this, that if there be any man who does not believe that 
slavery is wrong in the three aspects which I have mentioned, or in 
any one of them, that man is misplaced and ought to leave us. 
While, on the other hand, if there be any man in the Republican 
party who is impatient over the necessity springing fi'om its actual 
presence, and is impatient of the constitutional guaranties thrown 
around it, and would act in disregard of these, he too is misplaced, 
standing mth us. He will find his place somewhere else ; for we 
have a due regard, so far as we are capable of understanding them, 
for all these things. This, gentlemen, as well as I can give it, is a 
plain statement of our principles in all their enormity. 

I will say now that there is a sentiment in the country contrarj' to 
me — a sentiment which holds that slavery is not wrong, and there- 
fore it goes for the policv that does not propose dealing with it as a 
wrong. That policy is the Democratic policy, and that sentiment is 



464 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the Democratic sentiment. If there be a cloulit in the mind of any 
one of this vast audience that this is really the central idea of the 
Democratic party, in relation to this subject, I ask him to bear with 
me while I state a few things tending-, as I think, to prove that prop- 
osition. In the first place, the leadnig man — I think I may do my 
friend Judge Douglas the honor of calling him such — advocating the 
present Democratic policy never himself says it is wrong. He has 
the high distinction, so far as I know, of never having said slavery is 
either right or wTong. Almost everybody else says one or the other, 
but the judge never does. If there l)e a man in the Democratic party 
who thinks it is wTong, and yet clings to that party, I suggest to him 
in the first place that his leader don't talk as he does, for he never 
says that it is wrong. In the second place, I suggest to him that if he 
mil examine the policy proposed to be carried forward, he will find 
that he carefully excludes the idea that there is anything wrong in 
it. If you wiU examine the arguments that are made on it, you will 
find that every one carefully excludes the idea that there is anything 
^\Tong in slavery. Perhaps that Democrat who says he is as much 
opposed to slavery as I am, will tell me that I am wi-ong about this. 
I wish him to examine his own course in regard to this matter a 
moment, and then see if his opinion will not be changed a little. 
You say it is wrong ; but don't you constantly object to anybody else 
sajnng so ? Do you not constantly argue that tliis is not the right 
place to oppose it? You say it must not be ojjposed in the free 
States, because slavery is not there ; it must not be opposed in the 
slave States, because it is there ; it must not be opposed in politics, 
because that will make a fuss ; it must not be opposed in the pulpit, 
because it is not religion. Then where is the place to oppose it? 
There is no suitable place to oppose it. There is no plan in the 
country to oppose this evil overspreading the continent, which you 
say yourself is coming. Frank Blair and Gratz Brown tried to get 
up a system of gi'adual emancipation in Missouri, had an election in 
August, and got beat ; and you, Mr. Democrat, threw up yoiu* hat 
and hallooed, "Hurrah for Democracy!" 

So I say again, that in regard to the arguments that are made, 
when Judge Douglas says he '' don't care whether slavery is voted 
up or voted down," whether he means that as an individual ex- 
pression of sentiment, or only as a sort of statement of his views 
on national policy, it is alike true to say that he can thus argue 
logically if he don't see anything wrong in it ; but he cannot say so 
logically if he admits that slavery is wrong. He cannot say that he 
would as soon see a wrong voted up as voted down. Wlien Judge 
Douglas says that whoever or whatever community wants slaves, 
they have a right to have them, he is perfectly logical if there is 
nothing ^vrong in the institution ; but if you admit that it is wrong, 
he cannot logically say that anybody has a right to do wrong. When 
he says that slave property and horse and hog property are alike to 
be allowed to go into the Territories, upon the principles of equaHty,he 
is reasoning truly if there is no difference between them as property ; 
but if the one is property, held rightfullv, and the other is wrong, 
then there is no equality between the right and wrong; so that, tm*n 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 465 

it in any way you can, in all the argmnents sustaining the Dem- 
ocratic policy, and in that policy itself, there is a careful, studied 
exclusion of the idea that there is anything wi'ong in slavery. Let 
us understand this. I am not, just here, trying to prove that we are 
right and they are wrong. I have been stating where we and they 
stand, and trying to show what is the real difference between us ; 
and I now say that whenever we can get the question distinctly 
stated, — can get all these men who believe that slavery is in some of 
these respects "wi'ong, to stand and act with us in treating it as a 
wrong, — then, and not till then^ I think, mil we in some way come 
to an end of this slavery agitation. 

Mr. Douglas's Reply in the Quincy Joint Debate.' 

Ladies and Gentlemen: Permit me to say that unless silence is 
observed it will be impossible for me to be heard by this immense 
crowd, and my friends can confer no higher favor upon me than by 
omitting all expressions of applause or approbation. I desire to be 
heard rather than to be applauded. I wish to address myself to 
your reason, your judgment, yoiu* sense of justice, and not to your 
passions. 

I regi'et that Mr. Lincoln should have deemed it proper for him to 
again indulge in gross personalities and base insinuations in regard 
to the Springfield resolutions. It has imposed upon me the necessity 
of using some portion of my time for the purpose of calling your at- 
tention to the facts of the case, and it wiU then be for you to say 
Avhat you think of a man who can predicate such a charge upon the 
circumstances he has in this. I had seen the platform adopted by 
a Republican congi*essional convention held in Aurora, the second 
congressional district, in September, 1854, published as purporting to 
be the platform of the RepubHcan party. That platform declared that 
the Republican party was pledged never to admit another slave State 
into the Union, and also that it was pledged to prohibit slavery in all 
\\\Q Territories of the United States, — not only all that we then had, 
but all that we should thereafter acquire, — and to repeal uncondition- 
ally the fugitive-slave law, abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, 
and prohibit the slave-trade between the different States. These and 
other articles against slavery were contained in this platform, and 
unanimously adopted by the Republican congressional convention 
in that district. I had also seen that the Republican congressional 
conventions at Roclcford, in the first district, and at Bloomington, in 
the third, had adopted the same platform that year, nearly word for 
word, and had declared it to be the platform of the Republican party. 
I had noticed that Major Thomas L. Harris, a member of Congress 
from the Springfield district, had ref eiTcd to that platform in a speech 
in Congress, as having been adopted by the fii-st Republican State 
convention which assembled in Illinois. When I had occasion to use 
the fact in this canvass, I wrote to Major Harris to know on what 
day that convention was held, and to ask him to send me its proceed- 
ings. He being sick, Charles H. Lanphier answered my letter by 
sending me the published proceedings of the convention held at 
Vol. I.— 30. 



466 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

Springfield on the 5th of October, 1854, as they appeared in the re- 
port of the " State Register." I read those resolutions fi-om that 
newspaper the same as any of you would refer back and quote any 
fact from the files of a newspaper wliich had published it. Mr. Lin- 
coln pretends that after I had so quoted those resolutions he discov- 
ered that they had never been adopted at Springfield. He does not 
deny their adoption by the Republican party at Aurora, at Bloom- 
ington, and at Rockford, and by nearly all the Republican county 
conventions in northern Illinois where his party is in a majority; but 
merely because they were not adopted on the " spot" on which I said 
they were, he chooses to quil)ble about the place rather than meet and 
discuss the merits of the resolutions themselves. I stated when I quoted 
them that I did so from the '' State Register." I gave my authority. 
Lincoln believed at the time, as he has since admitted, that they had 
been adopted at Springfield, as published. Does he believe now that 
I did not tell the truth when I quoted those resolutions"? He knows 
in his heart that I quoted them in good faith, believing at the time 
that they had been adopted at Springfield. I would consider myself 
an infamous wi-etch if, under such circumstances, I could charge any 
man with being a party to a trick or a fraud. And I wiU tell him, 
too, that it will not do to charge a forgery on Charles H. Lanphier or 
Thomas L. Harris. No man on earth, who knows them, and knows 
Lincoln, would take his oath against their word. There are not two 
men in the State of Illinois who have higher characters for truth, for 
integrity, for moral character, and for elevation of tone, as gentle- 
men, than Mr. Lanphier and Mr. Harris. Any man who attempts to 
make such charges as Mr. Lincoln has indulged in against them, only 
proclaims himself a slanderer. 

I will now show you that I stated with entire fairness, as soon as 
it was made known to me, that there was a mistake about the spot 
where the resolutions had been adopted, although their truthfulness, 
as a declaration of the principles of the Republican party, had not 
and could not be questioned. I did not wait for Lincoln to point out 
the mistake ; but the moment I discovered it, I made a speech, and 
published it to the world, correcting the error. I corrected it my- 
self, as a gentleman and an honest man, and as I always feel proud 
to do when I have made a mistake. I wish Mr. Lincoln could show 
that he has acted with equal fairness and truthfulness when I have 
con\dnced him that he has been mistaken. I will give you an illus- 
tration to show you how he acts in a similar case : In a speech at 
Springfield he charged Chief Justice Taney and his associates. Presi- 
dent Pierce, President Buchanan, and myself, with having entered 
into a conspiracy at the time the Nebraska bill was introduced, by 
which the Dred Scott decision was to be made by the Supreme Court, 
in order to cany slavery everywhere under the Constitution. I called 
his attention to the fact that at the time alluded to — to "v\dt, the intro- 
duction of the Nebraska bill — it was not possible that such a conspii*- 
acy could have been entered into, for the reason that the Dred Scott 
case had never been taken before the Supreme Court, and was not 
taken before it for a year after; and I asked him to take back that 
charge. Did he do it? I showed him that it was impossible that 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 467 

the charge could be true ; I proved it by the record, and I then called 
upon him to retract his false charge. What was his answer? Instead 
of coming out like an honest man and doing so, he reiterated the 
charge, and said that if the case had not gone up to the Supreme 
Court from the courts of Missouri at the time he charged that the 
judges of the Supreme Com't entered into the conspiracy, yet that 
there was an understanding with the Democratic owners of Dred 
Scott that they would take it up. I have since asked him who the 
Democratic owners of Dred Scott were, but he could not tell. And 
why? Because there were no such Democratic owners in existence. 
Dred Scott at the time was owned by the Rev. Dr. Chaffee, an Aboli- 
tion member of Congi*ess, of Springfield, Massachusetts, in right of 
his wife. He was owned by one of Lincoln's friends, and not by 
Democrats at all ; his case was conducted in court by Abolition 
lawyers, so that ])oth the prosecution and the defense were in the 
hands of the Abolition political friends of Mr. Lincoln. 

Notwithstanding I thus proved by the record that his charge 
against the Supreme Court was false, instead of taking it back, he 
resorted to another false charge to sustain the infamy of it. He also 
charged President Buchanan with having been a party to the con- 
spiracy. I directed his attention to the fact that the charge could 
not possibly be true, for the reason that at the time specified Mr. 
Buchanan was not in America, but was three thousand miles off, 
representing the United States at the Court of St. James, and had 
been there for a year previous, and did not return till three years 
afterward. Yet I never could get Mr. Lincoln to take back his false 
charge, although I have called upon him over and over again. He 
refuses to do it, and either remains silent or resorts to other tricks 
to try and palm his slander off on the country. Therein you will 
find the difference between Mr. Lincoln and myself. When I make 
a mistake, as an honest man I correct it without being asked to do so ; 
Imt when he makes a false charge, he sticks to it and never corrects it. 
One word more in regard to these resolutions : I quoted them at Ottawa 
merely to ask Mr. Lincoln whether he stood on that platform. That 
was the purpose for which I quoted them. I did not think that I had a 
right to put idle questions to him, and I first laid a foundation for my 
questions by showing that the principles which I wished him either 
to affirm or deny had been adopted by some portion of his friends, 
at least, as their creed. Hence I read the resolutions, and put the 
questions to him, and he then refused to answer them. Subse- 
quently — one week afterward — he did answer a part of them, but 
the others he has not answered up to this day. 

Now let me call your attention for a moment to the answers 
which Mr. Lincoln made at Freeport to the questions which I pro- 
pounded to him at Ottawa, based upon the platform adopted by a ma- 
jority of the Abolition counties of the State, which now, as then, 
supported him. In answer to my question whether he indorsed the 
Black Republican principle of " no more slave States," he answered 
that he was not pledged against the admission of any more slave 
States, but that he would be very sorry if he should ever be placed 
in a position where he would have to vote on the question ; that he 



4(38 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

would rejoice to know that no more slave States would be admitted 
into the Union; "but," he added, ''if slavery shall be kept out of the 
Ten-itories during the territorial existence of any one given Ter- 
ritory, and then the people shall, having a fair chance and a clear 
field when they come to adopt the constitution, do such an extraordi- 
nary thing as to adopt a slave constitution, uninfluenced by the actual 
presence of the institution among them, I see no alternative, if we 
own the country, but to admit them into the Union." The point I 
wish hiin to answer is this : Suppose Congi-ess should not prohibit 
slavery in the Ten-itory, and it applied for admission with a consti- 
tution recognizing slavery, then how wo^lld he vote ? His answer at 
Freeport does not apply to any Ten-itory in America. I ask you 
[turning to Lincoln], will you vote to admit Kansas into the Union, 
with just such a constitution as lier people want, mth slavery or 
without, as they shall determine ? He will not answer. I have put 
that question to liim time and time again, and have not been able to 
get an answer out of him. I ask you again, Lincoln, will you vote 
to admit New Mexico, wlien she has the requisite population, with 
such a constitution as her people adopt, either recognizing slavery 
or not, as they shall determine ? He will not answer. I put the 
same question to him in reference to Oregon and the new States to 
be carved out of Texas in pursuance of the contract between Texas 
and the United States, and he will not answer. He will not answer 
tliese questions in reference to any Territory now in existence, but 
says that if Congress should prohibit slavery in a Territory, and 
when its people asked for admission as a State they should adopt 
slavery as one of theii' institutions, that he supposes he would have 
to let it come in. I submit to you whether that answer of his to my 
question does not justify me in saving that he has a fertile genius in 
devising language to conceal his tlioughts. I ask you whether there 
is an intelligent man in America who does not believe that that an- 
swer was made for the purpose of conceahng what he intended to do. 
He wished to make the old-line Wliigs believe that he would stand 
by the compromise measures of 1850, which declared that the States 
might come into the Union with slavery, or without, as they pleased, 
while Ijovejoy and his Aliolition allies up north explained to the 
Abolitionists that in taking this ground he preached good Abohtioii 
doctrine, because his proviso would not apply to any Territory in 
America, and thei-efore there was no chance of his being governed 
by it. It would have been quite easy for him to have said that he 
Avould let the people of a State do just as they pleased, if he desired 
to convey such an idea. Why did he not do it f He would not an- 
swer my question directly because, up north, the Abolition creed 
declares that there shall be no more slave States, while down south, 
in Adams County, in Coles, and in Sangamon, he and his friends are 
afraid to advance that doctrine. Therefore he gives an evasive and 
equivocal answer, to be construed one way in the south and another 
way in the north, which, when analyzed, it is apparent is not an 
ansM'er at all ^^^th reference to any Ten-itory now in existence. 

Mr. Lincoln complains that, in my speech the other day at Gales- 
burg, I read an extract from a speech delivered by him at Chicago, 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 4G9 

and then another from his speech at Chai-leston, and compared 
them, thus shoAving the people tliat he had one set of principles in 
one part of the State and another in the other part. And how does 
he answer that charge ? Why, he quotes fi-om his Charleston speech 
as I quoted from it, and then quotes another extract from a speech 
which he made at another place, which he says is the same as the 
extract from his speech at Charleston; but he does not quote the 
extract from his Chicago speech, upon which I convicted him of 
double-dealing. I quoted from his Chicago speech to prove that he 
held one set of principles up north among the Al)olitionists, and 
from his Charleston speech to prove th.nt he held another set down 
at Charleston and in southern Ilhnois. In his answer to this charge, 
he ignores entirely his Chicago speech, and merely argues that lie 
said the same thing which he said at Charleston at anothei* place. 
If he did, it follows that he has twice, instead of once, held one creed 
in one part of the State, and a different creed in another part. Up 
at Chicago, in the opening of the campaign, he reviewed my reception 
speech, and undertook to answer my argument attacking his favorite 
doctrine of negro equality. I had shown that it was a falsification 
of the Declaration of Independence to pretend that that instrument 
applied to and included negroes in the clause declaring that all men 
are created equal. Wliat was Lincoln's reply? I -v^dll read from 
his Cliicago speech, and the one which he did not quote, and dare not 
quote, in this part of the State. He said : 

I should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence, 
which declares that all men are equal upon principle, and making excep- 
tions to it, where will it stop ? If one man says it does not mean a negro, 
why may not another man say it does not mean another man? K that 
declaration is not the truth, let us get this statute-book in which we find it 
and tear it out. 

There you find that Mr. Lincoln told the Abolitionists of Chicago 
that if the Declaration of Independence did not declare that the 
negro was created by the Almighty the equal of the wliite man, that 
you otight to take that instrmnent and tear out the clause which says 
that all men ai-e created equal. But let me call yom* attention to 
another part of the same speech. You know that in his Charleston 
speech, an extract from which he has read, he declared that the negro 
belongs to an inferior race, is physically inferior to the wliite man, 
and should always be kept in an inferior position. I will now read 
to you what he said at Chicago on that point. In concluding his 
speech at that place, he remarked: 

My friends, I have detained you about as long as I desire to do, and I 
have only to say, let us discard all this quibbling about this man and the 
other man — this race and that race and the other race being inferior, and 
thei'efore they must be placed in an inferior position, discarding our stan- 
dard that we have left us. Let us discard all these things, and unite as one 
people throughout this land until we shall once more stand up declaring 
that all men are created equal. 

Thus you see that when addressing the Chicago Abolitionists he 
declared that all distinctions of race must be discarded and blotted 



470 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

out, because the negi'o stood on an equal footing with the white man ; 
that if one man said the Declaration of Independence did not mean 
a negro when it declared all men created equal, that another man 
would say that it did not mean another man ; and hence we ought to 
discard all difference between the negro race and all other races, and 
declare them all created equal. Did old Giddings, when he came 
down among you four years ago, preach more radical Abolitionism 
than this! Did Lovejoy, or Lloyd Garrison, or Wendell Philhps, or 
Fred Douglass, ever take higher Abolition gi-ounds than that ? Lin- 
coln told you that I had charged him with getting up these personal 
attacks to conceal the enormity of his principles, and then com- 
menced talking about something else, omitting to quote this part 
of his Chicago speech which contained the enormity of his principles 
to which I alluded. He knew that I alluded to his negro-equality 
doctrines when I spoke of the enormity of his principles, yet he did 
not find it convenient to answer on that point. Having shown you 
what he said in his Chicago speech in reference to negi'oes being 
created equal to white men, and about discarding all distinctions 
between the two races, I will again read to you what he said at 
Charleston : 

I wiU say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing 
about in any way the social and pohtical equaUty of the white and black 
races; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters of the 
free negroes, or jurors, or quahf jdng them to hold office, or having them to 
marry with white people. I will say, in addition, that there is a physical 
difference between the white and black races which, I suppose, will forever 
forbid the two races Uving together upon terms of social and pohtical 
equality ; and inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain to- 
gether, there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much 
as any other man, am in favor of the superior position being assigned to the 
white man. 

A voice : '^ That 's the doctrine." 

Mr. Douglas : Yes, sir, that is good doctrine ; but Mr. Lincoln is 
afraid to advocate it in the latitude of Chicago, where he hopes to get 
his votes. It is good doctrine in the anti- Abolition counties for him, 
and his Chicago speech is good doctrine in the Abolition counties. 
I assert, on the authority of these two speeches of Mr. Lincoln, that 
he holds one set of principles in the Abolition counties, and a differ- 
ent and contradictory set in the other counties. I do not question 
that he said at Ottawa what he quoted, but that only convicts him 
further, by proving that he has twice contradicted himself instead of 
once. Let me ask him why he cannot avow his principles the same 
in the north as in the south — the same in every county, if he has a 
conviction that they are just ? But I forgot — he would not be a Re- 
publican if his principles would apply alike to every part of the 
country. The party to which he belongs is bounded and limited by geo- 
graphical lines. With their principles they cannot even cross the Mis- 
sissippi River on your ferry-boats. They cannot cross over the Ohio 
into Kentucky. Lincoln himself cannot visit the laud of his fathers, 
the scenes of his childhood, the graves of his ancestors, and carry 
his Abolition principles, as he declared them at Chicago, with him. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHMI LINCOLN 471 

This Republican organization appeals to the North against the 
South; it appeals to Northern passion, Northern prejudice, and 
Northern ambition, against Southern people. Southern States, and 
Southern institutions, and its only hope of success is by that appeal. 
Mr. Lincoln goes on to justify himself in making a war upon slavery 
upon the ground that Frank Blair and Gratz Brown did not succeed 
in their warfare upon the institutions in Missouri. Frank Blair was 
elected to Congress, in 1856, from the State of Missouri, as a Bu- 
chanan Democrat, and he turned Fr^monter after the people elected 
him, thus belonging to one party before his election, and another 
afterward. "What right, then, had he to expect, after having thus 
cheated his constituency, that they would support him at another 
election? Mr. Lincoln thinks that it is his duty to preach a crusade 
in the free States against slavery, because it is a crime, as he believes, 
and ought to be extinguished, and because the people of the slave 
States will never abolish it. How is he going to abolish it ? Down 
in the southern part of the State he takes the ground openly that 
he will not interfere with slavery where it exists, and says that he 
is not now and never was in favor of interfering with slavery where 
it exists in the States. Well, if he is not in favor of that, how does 
he expect to bring slavery into a course of ultimate extinction ? How 
can he extinguish it in Kentucky, in Virginia, in all the slave States, 
by his policy, if he will not pursue a policy which will interfere with 
it in the States where it exists ? In his speech at Springfield before 
the Abolition or Republican convention, he declared his hostility to 
any more slave States in this language : 

Under the operation of that policy the agitation has not only not ceased, 
but has constantly augmented. In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis 
shall have been reached and passed. ''A house divided against itself 
cannot stand." I beUeve this government cannot endm'e permanently 
half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved, — I 
do not expect the house to fall, — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. 
It will become all one thing, or aU the other. Either the opponents of sla- 
very will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind 
shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its 
advocates will push it forward till it shall become ahke lawful in all the 
States — old as weU as new, North as well as South. 

Mr. Lincoln there told his Abolition friends that this government 
could not endure permanently divided into free and slave States as 
our fathers made it, and that it must become all free or all slave ; 
otherwise, that the government could not exist. How then does Lin- 
coln propose to save the Union, unless by compelling aU the States to 
become free, so that the house shall not be di\'ided against itself? 
He intends making them all free ; he will preserve the Union in that 
way ; and yet he is not going to interfere with slavery anywhere it 
now exists. How is he going to bring it about! Why, he wiU 
agitate ; he will induce the North to agitate until the South shall be 
worried out, and forced to abolish slavery. Let us examine the pol- 
icy by which that is to be done. He first tells you that he would 
prohibit slavery everywhere in the Territories. He would thus con- 
fine slavery within its present limits. When he thus gets it confined, 



472 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and surrounded, so that it cannot spread, the natural laws of increase 
will go on until the negroes will be so plenty that they cannot live 
on the soil. He will hem them in until starvation seizes them, and 
by starving them to death he will put slavery in the course of ulti- 
mate extinction. If he is not going to interfere with slavery in the 
States, but intends to interfere and prohibit it in the Territories, 
and thus smother slavery out, it naturally follows that he can ex- 
tinguish it only by extinguishing the negro race; for his policy 
would drive them to starvation. This is the humane and Christian 
remedy that he proposes for the great crime of slavery. 

He tells you that I will not argue the question whether slavery is 
right or wrong. I tell you why I will not do it. I hold that, under 
the Constitution of the United States, each State of this Union has 
a right to do as it pleases on the subject of slavery. In Illinois we 
have exercised that sovereign right by prohibiting slavery within 
our own limits. I approve of that line of policy. We have per- 
formed our whole duty in Illinois. We have gone as far as we have 
a right to go under the Constitution of our common country. It is 
none of our business whether slavery exists in Missouri or not. 
Missouri is a sovereign State of this Union, and has the same right 
to decide the slavery question for herself that Illinois has to decide 
it for herself. Hence I do not choose to occupy the time allotted to 
me in discussing a question that we have no right to act upon. I 
thought that you desired to hear us upon those questions coming 
within our constitutional power of action. Lincoln will not discuss 
these. What one question has he discussed that comes within the 
power or calls for the action or interference of a United States 
senator? He is going to discuss the rightfulness of slavery when 
Congress cannot act upon it either way. He wishes to discuss the 
merits of the Dred Scott decision when, under the Constitution, a 
senator has no right to interfere with the decision of judicial tribu- 
nals. He wants your exclusive attention to two questions that he 
has no power to act upon ; to two questions that he could not vote 
upon if he was in Congress; to two questions that are not practical, 
in order to conceal from your attention other questions which he 
might be required to A^ote upon should he ever become a member of 
Congress. He tells you that he does not like the Dred Scott decision. 
Suppose he does not, how is he going to help himself ? He says that 
he will reverse it. How will he reverse it? I know of but one mode 
of reversing judicial decisions, and that is by appealing from the in- 
ferior to the superior court. But I have never yet learned how or 
where an appeal could be taken from the Supreme Court of the 
United States. The Dred Scott decision was pronounced by the 
highest tribunal on earth. From that decision there is no appeal 
this side of heaven. Yet Mr. Lincoln says he is going to reverse 
that decision. By what tribunal will he reverse it? Will he appeal 
to a mob? Does he intend to appeal to violence, to lynch-law? 
Will he stir up strife and rebellion in the land, and overthrow the 
court by violence? He does not deign to tell you how he will 
reverse the Dred Scott decision, but keeps appealing each day from 
the Supreme Court of the United States to political meetings in the 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 473 

country. He wants me to argue with you the merits of each point 
of that decision before this political meeting, I say to you, with all 
due respect, that I choose to abide by the decisions of the Supreme 
Court as they are pronounced. It is not for me to inquire, after a 
decision is made, whether I like it in all the points or not. When I 
used to practise law with Lincoln, I never knew him to be beat in a 
case that he did not get mad at the judge and talk about appealing; 
and when I got beat I generally thought the court was wrong, but I 
never dreamed of going out of the court-house and making a stump 
speech to the people against the judge, merely because I had found 
out that I did not know the law as well as he did. If the decision 
did not suit me, I appealed until I got to the Supreme Court, and 
then if that court, the highest tribunal in the world, decided against 
me, I was satisfied, because it is the duty of every law-abiding man 
to obey the Constitution, the laws, and the constituted authorities. 
He who attempts to stir up odium and rebellion in the country 
against the constituted authorities, is stimulating the passions of 
men to resort to violence and to mobs instead of to the law. Hence 
I teU you that I take the decisions of the Supreme Com-t as the law 
of the land, and I intend to obey them as such. 

But Mr. Lincoln says that I will not answer his question as to what 
I would do in the event of the court making so ridiculous a decision 
as he imagines they would by deciding that the free State of Illinois 
could not prohibit slavery within her own limits. I told him at 
Freeport why I would not answer such a question. I told him that 
there was not a man possessing any brains in America, lawyer or 
not, who ever dreamed that such a thing could be done. I told him 
then, as I do now, that by all the principles set forth in the Dred Scott 
decision, it is impossible. I told him then, as I do now, that it is an 
insult to men's understanding, and a gross calumny on the court, to 
presume in advance that it was going to degrade itself so low as to 
make a decision known to be in direct violation of the Constitution. 
[A voice : " The same thing was said about the Dred Scott decision 
before it passed."] Perhaps you think that the court did the same 
thing in reference to the Dred Scott decision. I have heard a man 
talk that way before. The principles contained in the Dred Scott 
decision had been affirmed previously in various other decisions. 
What court or judge ever held that a negro was a citizen ? The State 
courts had decided that question over and over again, and the Dred 
Scott decision on that point only affirmed what every court in the 
land knew to be the law. 

But I will not be drawn off into an argument upon the merits of 
the Dred Scott decision. It is enough for me to know that the Con- 
stitution of the United States created the Supreme Court for the pur- 
pose of deciding all disputed questions touching the true construction 
of that instrument, and when such decisions are pronounced, they are 
the law of the land, binding on every good citizen. Mr. Lineohi has 
a very convenient mode of arguing upon tlie subject. He hoius that 
because he is a Republican he is not bound by the decisions of 
the court, but that I, being a Democrat, am so bound. It may be that 
Republicans do not hold themselves bound by the laws of the land 



474 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and the Constitution of the country as expounded by the courts; it 
may be an article in the Republican creed that men who do not like 
a decision have a right to rebel against it ; but when Mr. Lincoln 
preaches that doctrine, I think he will find some honest Republican 
— some law-abiding man in that party — who will repudiate such a 
monstrous doctrine. The decision in the Dred Scott case is binding 
on every American citizen alike ; and yet Mr. Lincoln argues that 
the Republicans are not bound by it because they are opposed to it, 
whilst Democrats are bound by it because we will not resist it. A 
Democrat cannot resist the constituted authorities of this country ; 
a Democrat is a law-abiding man; a Democrat stands by the Consti- 
tution and the laws, and relies upon liberty as protected by law, and 
not upon mob or political violence. 

I have never yet been able to make Mr. Lincoln understand, nor can 
I make any man who is determined to support him, right or wrong, 
understand, how it is that under the Dred Scott decision the people of 
a Territory, as well as a State, can have slavery or not, just as they 
please. I believe that I can explain that proposition to all constitu- 
tion-loving, law-abiding men in a way that they cannot fail to under- 
stand. Chief Justice Tanej?^, in his opinion in the Dred Scott case, 
said that slaves being property, the owner of them has a right to take 
them into a Territory the same as he would any other property ; in 
other words, that slave property, so far as the right to enter into a 
Territory is concerned, stands on the same footing with other prop- 
erty. Suppose we grant that proposition. Then any man has a right 
to go to Kansas and take his property with him, but when he gets 
there he must rely upon the local law to protect his property, what- 
ever it may be. In order to illustrate this, imagine that three of 
you conclude to go to Kansas. One takes $10,000 worth of slaves, 
another $10,000 worth of liquors, and the third $10,000 worth of dry- 
goods. When the man who owns the dry-goods arrives out there 
and commences selling them, he finds that he is stopped and pro- 
hibited from selling until he gets a license, which will destroy all 
the profits be can make on his goods to pay for. When the man 
with the liquors gets there and tries to sell, he finds a Maine liquor- 
law in force which prevents him. Now of what use is his right to 
go there with his property unless he is protected in the enjoyment 
of that right after he ^ets there? The man who goes there with his 
slaves finds that there is no law to protect him when be arrives there. 
He has no remedy if his slaves run away to another country : there 
is no slave code or police regulations, and the absence of them ex- 
cludes his slaves from the Territory just as effectually and as posi- 
tively as a constitutional prohibition could. 

Such was the understanding when the Kansas and Nebraska bill 
was pending in Congress. Read the speech of Speaker Orr, of South 
Carolina, in the House of Representatives, in 1856, on the Kansas 
question, and you will find that he takes the ground that while the 
owner of a slave has a right to go into a Territory and carry his 
slaves with him, that he cannot hold them one day or hour unless 
there is a slave code to protect him. He tells you that slavery would 
not exist a day in South Carolina, or any other State, unless there 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 475 

was a friendly people and frieudly legislation. Read the speeches of 
that giant in intellect, Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, and you 
will find them to the same effect. Read the speeches of Sam Smith, 
of Tennessee, and of all Southern men, and you will find that they 
all understood this doctrine then as we understand it now. Mr. 
Lincoln cannot be made to understand it, however. Down at Jones- 
boro, he went on to argue that if it be the law that a man has a right 
to take his slaves into territory of the United States under the Con- 
stitution, that then a member of Congress was perjured if he did 
not vote for a slave code. I ask him whether the decision of the 
Supreme Court is not binding upon him as well as on me? If so, 
and he holds that he would be perjured if he did not vote for a slave 
code under it, I ask him whether, if elected to Congress, he will so 
vote? I have a right to his answer, and I will tell you why. He 
put that question to me down in Egypt, and did it with an air of 
triumph. This was about the form of it: "In the event a slave- 
holding citizen of one of the Territories should need and demand a 
slave code to protect his slaves, would you vote for it ?" I answered 
him that a fundamental article in the Democratic creed, as put forth 
in the Nebraska bill and the Cincinnati platform, was non-interven- 
tion by Congress with slavery in the States and Territories, and 
hence that I would not vote in Congress for any code of laws either 
for or against slavery in any Territory. I wiU leave the people per- 
fectly free to decide that question for themselves. 

Mr. Lincoln and the Washington '' Union " both think this a mon- 
strous bad doctrine. Neither Mr. Lincoln nor the Washington 
''Union" likes my Freeport speech on that subject. The "Union," 
in a late number, has been reading me out of the Democratic party 
because I hold that the people of a Territory, like those of a State, 
have the right to have slavery or not, as they please. It has devoted 
three and a half columns to prove certain propositions, one of which 
I will read. It says : 

We propose to show that Judge Douglas's action in 1850 and 1854 was 
taken with especial reference to the announcement of doctrine and pro- 
gramme which was made at Freeport. The declaration at Freeport was 
that " in his opinion the people can, by lawful means, exclude slavery from a 
Territory before it comes in as a State " ; and he declared that his competitor 
had "heard him argue the Nebraska bill on that principle all over Illinois 
in 1854, 1855, and 1856, and had no excuse to pretend to have any doubt upon 
that subject. 

The Washington "Union" there charges me with the monstrous 
crime of now proclaiming on the stump the same doctrine that I car- 
ried out in 1850, by supporting Clay's compromise measures. The 
" Union" also charges that I am now proclaiming the same doctrine 
that I did in 1854 in support of the Kansas and Nebraska biU. It is 
shocked that I should now stand where I stood in 1850, when I w?s 
supported by Clay, Webster, Cass, and the gi-eat men of that day, and 
where I stood in 1854, and in 1856, when Mr. Buchanan was elected 
President. It goes on to prove, and succeeds in proving, from my 
speeches in Congress on Clay's compromise measures, that I held the 
same doctrines at that time that I do now, and then proves that by 



476 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the Kansas and Nebraska bill I advanced the same doctriue that I 
now advance. It remarks: 

So much for the course taken by Judge Douglas on the compromises of 
1850. The record shows, beyond the possibility of cavil or dispute, that he 
expressly intended in those bills to give the territorial legislatures power to 
exclude slavery. How stands his record in the memorable session of 1854, 
with reference to the Kansas-Nebraska biU itself? We shall not overhaul 
the votes that were given on that notable measure. Our space will not af- 
ford it. We have liis own words, however, delivered in his speeeli closing 
the great debate on that bill on the night of March 3, 1854, to show that he 
meant to do in 1854 precisely what he had meant to do in 1858. The Kansas- 
Nebraska bill being upon its passage, he said : 

It then quotes my remarks upon the passage of the bill as follows : 

The principle which we propose to carry into effect by this biU is this : 
That Congress shall neither legislate slavery into any Territory or State, 
nor out of the same ; but the people shaU be left fi*ee to regulate their do- 
mestic concerns in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the 
United States. In order to cany this principle into practical operation, it 
becomes necessary to remove whatever legal obstacles might be found in the 
way of its free exercise. It is only for the purpose of carrying out this 
gi'eat fundamental pruiciple of self-government that the bill renders the 
eighth section of the Missouri act inoperative and void. 

Now, let me ask, will those senators who have arraigned me, or any one 
of them, have the assurance to rise in his place and declare that this gi'eat 
principle was never thought of or advocated as applicable to territorial bills 
in 1850 ; that from that session imtil the present, nobody ever thought of 
incoi'porating this principle in aU new territorial organizations, etc., etc.? I 
will begin with the compromises of 1850. Any senator who will take the 
trouble to examine our journals will find that on the 25th of March of that 
year I reported from the Committee on Territories two bills, inchiding the 
foUowing measures : the admission of California, a temtorial government 
for Utah, a territorial government for New Mexico, and the adjustment of 
the Texas boundary. These bUls proposed to leave the people of Utah and 
New Mexico free to decide the slavery question for themselves, in the 
precise language of the Nebraska bill now under discussion. A few weeks 
afterward the committee of thirteen took those bills and put a wafer be- 
tween them and reported them back to the Senate as one bill, with some 
slight amendments. One of these amendments was that the territorial 
legislatures should not legislate upon the subject of African slavery. I 
objected to this pro^asion, upon the ground that it subverted the great 
principle of self-government, upon which the bill had l^een originally 
framed by the territorial committee. On the first trial the Senate refused 
to strike it out, but subsequently did so, upon full debate, in order to 
establish that principle as the rule of action in temtorial organizations. 

The ''Union" comments thus on my speech on that occasion : 

Thus it is seen that, in framing the Nebraska-Kansas bill, Judge Doug- 
las framed it in the terms and upon the model of those of Utah and New 
Mexico, and that in the debate he took pains expressly to revive the recol- 
lection of the voting which had taken place upon amendments affecting the 
powers of the territorial legislatures over the subject of slavery in the bUls 
of 1 850, in order to give the same meaning, force, and effect to the Ne- 
braska-Kansas bill on this subject as had been given to those of Utah and 
New Mexico. 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 477 

The " Union " proves the following propositions : First, that I 
sustained Clay's compromise measm-es on the ground that they 
established the principle of self-government in the Territories. Sec- 
ondly, that I brought in the Kansas and Nebraska bill, founded upon 
the same principles as Clay's compromise measures of 1850 ; and 
thirdly, that my Freeport speech is in exact accordance with those 
principles. And what do you think is the imputation that the 
" Union " casts upon me for all this ? It says that my Freeport 
speech is not Democratic, and that I was not a Democrat in 1854 or 
in 1850 ! Now, is not that funny ? Think that the author of the 
Kansas and Nebraska bill was not a Democrat when he intro- 
duced it ! The '' Union " says I was not a sound Democrat in 1850, 
nor in 1854, nor in 1856, nor am I in 1858, because I have always 
taken and now occupy the ground that the people of a Territory, like 
those of a State, have the right to decide ft>r themselves whether sla- 
very shall or shall not exist in a Territor}-. I wish to cite, for the 
benefit of the Washington " Union " and the followers of that sheet, 
one authority on that point, and I hope the authority will l)e deemed 
satisfactory to that class of politicians. I will read from Mr. Bu- 
chanan's letter accepting the nomination of the Democratic conven- 
tion for the presidency. You know that Mr. Buchanan, after he was 
nominated, declared to the Keystone Club, in a public speech, that 
he was no longer James Buchanan, but the embodiment of the Dem- 
ocratic platform. In his letter to the committee which informed him 
of his nomination, accepting it, he defined the meaning of the Kan- 
sas and Nebraska bill and the Cincinnati platform in these words : 

The recent legislation of Congress respecting domestic slavery, derived 
as it has been from the original and pure fountain of legitimate political 
power, the will of the majority, promises ere long to allay the dangerous 
excitement. Tliis legislation is founded upon principles as ancient as free 
government itself, and in accordance with them has simply declared that 
the people of a Tenitory, hke those of a State, shall decide for themselves 
whether slavery shall or shall not exist within their limits. 

Thus you see that James Buchanan accepted the nomination at 
Cincinnati on the condition that tlie people of a Territory, like 
those of a State, should be left to decide for themselves whether 
slavery should or should not exist within their limits. I sustained 
James Buchanan for the presidency on that platform as adopted 
at Cincinnati and expounded by himself. He was elected presi- 
dent on that platform, and now we are told by the Washington 
"Union" that no man is a true Democrat who stands on the platform 
on which Mr. Buchanan was nominated, and which he has explained 
and expounded himself. We are told that a man is not a Democrat 
who stands by Clay, Webster, and Cass, and the compromise mea- 
sures of 1850, and the Kansas and Nebraska bill of 1854. Whether 
a man be a Democrat or not on that platform, I intend to stand 
there as long as I have life. I intend to cling firmly to that great 
principle which declares the right of each State and each Terri- 
tor}^ to settle the question of slavery, and every other domestic ques- 
tion, for themselves. I hold that if they want a slave State, they 



478 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

have a riglit, under the Constitution of the United States, to make 
it so, and if they want a free State, it is their right to have it. But 
the '* Union," in advocating tlie claims of Lincoln over me to the 
Senate, lays down two unpardonable heresies which it says I ad- 
vocate. The first is the right of the people of a Territory^ the same 
as a State, to decide for themselves the question whether slavery 
shall exist within their limits, in the language of Mr. Buchanan ; 
and the second is that a constitution shall be submitted to the peo- 
ple of a Territory for its adoption or rejection before their admission 
as a State under it. It so happens that Mr. Buchanan is pledged to 
both these heresies, for supporting which the Washington ''Union" 
has read me out of the Democratic church. In his annual message 
he said he trusted that the example of the Minnesota case would be 
followed in all future cases requiring a submission of the constitu- 
tion; and in his letter of acceptance he said that the people of a 
Territory, the same as a State, had the right to decide for themselves 
whether slavery should exist within their limits. Thus you find that 
this little corrupt gang who control the "Union," and wish to elect 
Lincoln in preference to me, — because, as they say, of these two 
heresies which I support, — denounce President Buchanan when they 
denounce me, if he stands now by the principles upon which he was 
elected. Will they pretend that he does not now stand by the prin- 
ciples on which he was elected? Do they hold that he has aban- 
doned the Kansas-Nebraska bill, the Cincinnati platform, and his 
own letter accepting his nomination, all of which declare the right 
of the people of a Territory, the same as a State, to decide the sla- 
very question for themselves? I will not believe that he has betrayed 
or intends to betray the platform which elected him ; but if he does, 
I will not follow him. I will stand by that great principle, no mat- 
ter who may desert it. I intend to stand by it for the purpose of 
preserving peace between the North and the South, the free and the 
slave States. 

If each State will only agree to mind its own business, and let its 
neighbors alone, there will be peace forever between us. We in 
Illinois tried slavery when a Territory, and found it was not good for 
us in this climate, and with our surroundings, and hence we abol- 
ished it. We then adopted a free-State constitution, as we had a 
right to do. In this State we have declared that a negro shall not 
be a citizen, and we have also declared that he shall not be a slave. 
We had a right to adopt that policy. Missouri has just as good a 
right to adopt the other policy. I am now speaking of rights under 
tlie Constitution, and not of moral or religious rights. I do not dis- 
cuss the morals of the people of Missouri, but let them settle that 
matter for themselves. I hold that the people of the slaveholding 
States are civilized men as well as ourselves; that they bear con- 
sciences as well as we, and that they are accountable to God and 
their posterity, and not to us. It is for them to decide, therefore, 
the moral and religious right of the slavery question for themselves 
within their own limits. I assert that they had as much right under 
the Constitution to adopt the system of policy which they have as we 
had to adopt ours. So it is with every other State in this Union. Let 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 479 

each State stand firmly by that great constitutional right, let each 
State mind its own business and let its neighbors alone, and there will 
be no trouble on this question. If we will stand by that principle, 
then Mr. Lincoln will find that this republic can exist forever 
di\dded into free and slave States, as our fathers made it, and the 
people of each State have decided. Stand by that gi-eat principle, 
and we can go on as we have done, increasing in wealth, in popula- 
tion, in power, and in all the elements of gi'eatness, until we shall be 
the admiration and terror of the world. We can go on and enlarge 
as our population increases and requires more room, until we make 
this continent one ocean-bound republic. Under that principle the 
United States can perform that great mission, that destiny, which 
Providence has marked out for us. Under that principle we can 
receive with entire safety that stream of intelligence which is con- 
stantly fl.owing from the Old World to the New, filling up our 
prairies, clearing our wildernesses, and building cities, towns, rail- 
roads, and other internal improvements, and thus make this the 
asylum of the oppressed of the whole earth. We have this great 
mission to perform, and it can only be performed by adhering 
faithfully to that principle of self-government on which our institu- 
tions were all established. I repeat that the principle is the right 
of each State, each Territory, to decide this slavery question for 
itself, to have slavery or not, as it chooses, and it does not become 
Mr. Lincoln, or anybody else, to tell the people of Kentucky that they 
have no consciences, that they are living in a state of iniquity, and 
that they are cherishing an institution to their bosoms in violation 
of the law of God. Better for him to adopt the doctrine of "Judge 
not, lest ye shall be judged." Let him perform his own duty at home, 
and he will have a better fate in the future. I think there are objects 
of charity enough in the free States to excite the sympathies and open 
the pockets of all the benevolence we have amongst us, without 
going abroad in search of negroes, of whose condition we know 
nothing. We have enough objects of charity at home, and it is our 
duty to take care of our own poor, and our own suffering, before we 
go abroad to intermeddle with other people's business. 

My friends, I am told that my time is within two minutes of ex- 
piring. I have omitted many topics that I would like to have dis- 
cussed before you at length. There were many points touched by 
Mr. Lincoln that I have not been able to take up for the want of time. 
I have hurried over each subject that I have discussed as rapidly as 
possible, so as to omit but few; but one hour and a half is not time 
sufficient for a man to discuss at length one half of the gi-eat ques- 
tions which are now dividing the public mind. 

In conclusion, I desire to return to you my grateful acknowledg- 
ments for the kindness and the courtesy with which you have listened 
to me. It is something remarkable that in an audience as vast as 
this, composed of men of opposite politics and views, with their pas- 
sions highly excited, there should be so much courtesy, kindness, and 
respect exhibited not only toward one another, but toward the speak- 
ers, and I feel that it is due to you that I should thus express ray 
gratitude for the kindness with which you have treated me. 



480 ADDBESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 



Mr. lAncoln^s Rejoinder in the Quincy Joint Debate. 

My Friends : Since Judge Douglas has said to you in his conclu- 
sion that he had not time in an hour and a half to answer all I had 
said in an hour, it follows of course that I will not be able to answer 
in haK an hour all that he said in an hour and a half. 

I wish to return to Judge Douglas my profound thanks for his 
public annunciation here to-day to be put on record, that his system 
of policy in regard to the institution of slavery contemplates that it 
shall last forever. We are getting a little nearer the true issue of 
this controversy, and I am profoundly grateful for this one sentence. 
Judge Douglas asks you, ''Why cannot the institution of slavery, or 
rather, why cannot the nation, part slave and part free, continue as 
our fathers made it forever?" In the first place, I insist that our 
fathers did not make this nation half slave and half free, or part 
slave and part free. I insist that they found the institution of 
slavery existing here. They did not make it so, but they left it so 
because they knew of no way to get rid of it at that time. When 
Judge Douglas undertakes to say that, as a matter of choice, the 
fathers of the government made this nation part slave and part free, 
he assumes what is historically a falsehood. More than that: when 
the fathers of the government cut off the source of slavery by the 
abolition of the slave-trade, and adopted a system of restricting it 
from the new Territories where it had not existed, I maintain that 
they placed it where they understood, and all sensible men under- 
stood, it was in the course of ultimate extinction; and when Judge 
Douglas asks me why it cannot continue as our fathers made it, I ask 
him why he and his friends could not let it remain as our fathers 
made it? 

It is precisely all I ask of him in relation to the institution of 
slavery, that it shall be placed upon the basis that our fathers placed 
it upon. Mr. Bi-ooks, of South Carolina, once said, and truly said, 
that when this government was established, no one expected the in- 
stitution of slavery to last until this day ; and that the men who 
formed this government were wiser and better than the men of 
these days; but the men of these days had experience which the 
fathers had not, and that experience had taught them the invention 
of the cotton-gin, and this had made the perpetuation of the institu- 
tion of slavery a necessity in this country. Judge Douglas could 
not let it stand upon the basis where our fathers placed it, but re- 
moved it, and put it upon the cotton-gin basis. It is a question, 
therefore, for him and his friends to answer — why they could not let 
it remain where the fathers of the government originally placed it. 

I hope nobody has understood me as trying to sustain the doctrine 
that we have a right to quarrel with Kentucky or Virginia, or any 
of the slave States, about the institution of slavery — thus giving the 
judge an opportunity to make himself eloquent and valiant against 
us in figliting for their rights. I expressly declared in my opening 
speech that I had neither the inclination to exercise, nor the belief in 
the existence of, the right to interfere with the States of Kentucky or 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 481 

Virginia in doing as they pleased with slavery or any other existing 
institution. Then what becomes of all his eloquence in behalf of the 
rights of States, which are assailed by no living m;in? 

But I have to hurry on, for I have but a half-hour. The judge 
has informed me, or informed this audience, that the Washington 
"Union" is laboring for my election to the United States Senate. 
This is news to me — not very ungrateful news either. [Turning to 
Mr, W. H. Carlin, who was on the stand:] I hope that Oarlin will be 
elected to the State Senate and will vote for me. [Mr. Carlin shook 
his head.] Carlin don't fall in, I perceive, and I suppose he Avill not 
do much for me ; but I am glad of all the support I can get anywhere, 
if I can get it without practising any deception to obtain it. In re- 
spect to this large portion of Judge Douglas's speech, in which he 
tries to show that in the controversy between himself and the ad- 
ministration party he is in the right, I do not feel myself at all com- 
petent or inclined to answer him. I say to him. Give it to them — 
give it to them just all you can; and, on the other hand, I say to Cai*- 
lin, and Jake Davis, and to this man Wagley up here in Hancock, 
Give it to Douglas — just pour it into him. 

Now in regard to this matter of the Dred Scott decision, I wish to 
say a word or two. After all, the judge will not say whether, if a 
decision is made holding that the people of the States cannot ex- 
clude slavery, he will support it or not. He obstinately refuses to 
say what he will do in that case. The judges of the Supreme Court 
as obstinately refused to say what they would do on this subject. 
Before this I reminded him that at Galesburg he said the judges 
had expressly declared the contrary, and you remember that in my 
opening speech I told him I had the book containing that de- 
cision here, and I would thank him to lay his finger on the place 
where any such thing was said. He has occupied his hour and a 
half, and he has not ventured to try to sustain his assertion. He 
never will. But he is desirous of knowing how we are going to re- 
verse the Dred Scott decision. Judge Douglas ought to know how. 
Did not he and his political friends find a way to reverse the deci- 
sion of that same court in favor of the constitutionality of the national 
bank ? Did n't they find a way to do it so effectually that they have 
reversed it as completely as any decision ever was reversed, so far as 
its practical operation is concerned! And, let me ask you, did n't 
Judge Douglas find a way to reverse the decision of our Supreme 
Court, when it decided that Carlin's father — old Governor Carlin 
— had not the constitutional power to remove a secretary of state ? 
Did he not appeal to the " mobs," as he calls them ? Did he not make 
speeches in the lobby to show how villainous that decision was, and 
how it ought to be overthrown 1 Did he not succeed, too, in getting 
an act passed by the legislature to have it overthrown? And did n't 
he himself sit down on that bench as one of the five added judges 
who were to overslaugh the four old ones — getting his name of 
" judge " in that way and in no other ? If there is a villainy in using 
disrespect or making opposition to Supreme Court decisions, I com- 
mend it to Judge Douglas's earnest consideration. I know of no man 
in the State of Illinois who ought to know so well about how much 
Vol. I.— 31. 



482 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

villainy it takes to oppose a decision of the Supreme Court, as our 
hononible friend, Stephen A. Douglas. 

Judge Douglas also makes the declaration that I say the Demo- 
crats are bound by the Dred Scott decision, while the Republicans 
are not. In the sense in which he argues, I never said it ; but I will 
tell you what I have said and what I do not hesitate to repeat to-day. 
I have said that, as the Democrats believe that decision to be correct, 
and that the extension of slavery is afl&rmed in the National Consti- 
tution, they are bound to support it as such ; and I will tell you here 
that General Jackson once said each man was bound to support the 
Constitution, "as he understood it." Now, Judge Douglas under- 
stands the Constitution according to the Dred Scott decision, and 
he is bound to support it as he understands it. I understand it an- 
other way, and therefore I am bound to support it in the way in 
which I understand it. And as Judge Douglas believes that decision 
to be correct, I will remake that argument if I have time to do so. 
Let me talk to some gentleman down there among you who looks 
me in the face. We will say you are a member of the territorial 
legislature, and, like Judge Douglas, you believe that the right to 
take and hold slaves there is a constitutional right. The first thing 
you do is to swear you will support the Constitution and all rights 
guaranteed therein ; that you will, whenever your neighbor needs 
your legislation to support his constitutional rights, not withhold 
that legislation. If you withhold that necessary legislation for 
the support of the Constitution and constitutional rights, do you 
not commit perjury? I ask every sensible man if that is not 
so? That is undoubtedly just so, say what you please. Now, that 
is precisely what Judge Douglas says — that this is a constitutional 
right. Does the judge mean to say that the territorial legislature in 
legislating may, by withholding necessary laws or by passing un- 
friendly laws, nullify that constitutional right? Does he mean to say 
that? Does he mean to ignore the proposition, so long and well estab- 
lished in law, that what youjiannot do directly, you cannot do indi- 
rectly ? Does he mean that? [The truth about the matter is this : Judge 
Douglas has sung paeans to his " popular sovereignty" doctrine until 
his Supreme Court, cooperating with him, has squatted his squatter 
sovereignty out. But he will keep up this species of humbuggery 
about squatter sovereignty. He has at last invented this sort of do- 
nothing sovereignty — that the people may exclude slavery })y a 
sort of "sovereignty" that is exercised by doing nothing at all. Is 
not that running his popular sovereignty down awfully ? Has it 
not got down as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by boil- 
ing the shadow of a pigeon that had starved to death ? But at last, 
when it is brought to the test of close reasoning, there is not even 
that thin decoction of it left. It is a presumption impossible in the 
domain of thought. It is precisely no other than the putting of that 
most unphilosophical proposition, that two bodies can occupy the 
same space at the same time. The Dred Scott decision covers the 
whole ground, and while it occupies it, there is no room even for 
tjie shadow of a starved pigeon to occupy the same ground. ^ 

Judge Douglas, in reply to what I have said about having upon a 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 483 

previous occasion made the same speech at Ottawa as the one he took 
an extract from at Charleston, says it only shows that I practised 
the deception twice. Now, my friends, are any of you obtuse 
enough to swallow that? Judge Douglas had said 1 had made 
a speech at Charleston that I would not make up north, aud I turned 
around and answered him by showing I had made that same speech 
up north — had made it at Ottawa — made it in his hearing — made it 
in the Abolition district — in Lovejoy's district — in the personal 
presence of Lovejoy himself — in the same atmosphere exactly in 
which I had made my Chicago speech, of which he complains so much. 
Now, in relation to my not having said anything about the quo- 
tation from the Chicago speech. He thinks that is a terrible sub- 
ject for me to handle. Why, gentlemen, I can show you that the 
substance of the Chicago speech I delivered two years ago in 
"Egypt," as he calls it. It was down at Springfield. That speech 
is here in this book, and I could turn to it and read it to you but 
for the lack of time. I have not now the time to read it. ['* Read 
it, read it."] No, gentlemen, I am obliged to use discretion in dis- 
posing most advantageously of my brief time. The judge has taken 
great exception to my adopting the heretical statement in the Declar- 
ation of Independence, that ''all men are created equal," and he has a 
great deal to say about negro equality. I want to say that in some- 
times alluding to the Declaration of Independence, I have only uttered 
the sentiments that Henry Clay used to hold. Allow me to occupy 
your time a moment with what he said. Mr. Clay was at one time 
called upon in Indiana, and in a way that I suppose was very insult- 
ing, to liberate his slaves, and he made a written reply to that appli- 
cation, and one portion of it is in these words : 

What is the foundation of this appeal to me in Indiana to liberate the 
slaves under my care in Kentucky ? It is a general declaration in the act 
announcing to the world the independence of the thirteen American 
colonies, that '" meu are created equal." Now, as an abstract principle, 
there is no doubt of the truth of that declaration, aud it is desirable in the 
ovigiual construction of society, and in organized societies, to keep it in 
view as a great fundamental principle. 

When I sometimes, in relation to the organization of new societies 
in new countries, where the soil is clean and clear, insist that we 
should keep that principle in view. Judge Douglas will have it that 
I want a negro wife. He never can be brought to understand that 
there is any middle ground on this subject. I have lived until my 
fiftieth year, and have never had a negro woman either for a slave 
or a wife, and I think I can live fifty centuries, for that matter, with- 
out having had one for either. I maintain that you may take Judge 
Douglas's quotations from my Chicago speech, and from my Charles- 
ton speech, and the Galesburg speech, — in his speech of to-day, — and 
compare them over, and I am willing to trust them with you upon 
his proposition that they show rascality or double-dealing. I deny 
that they do. 

The judge does not seem disposed to have peace, but I find he is 
disposed to have a personal warfare "with me. He says that m}- oath 
would not be taken against the bare word of Charles H. Lanphier 



484 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

or Thomas L. Harris. Well, that is altogether a matter of opinion. 
It is certainly not for me to vaunt my word against the oaths of 
these gentlemen, but I will tell Judge Douglas again the facts upon 
which I ''dared" to say they proved a forgery. I pointed out at 
Galesburg that the publication of these resolutions in the Illinois 
'* State Register" could not have been the result of accident, as the 
proceedings of that meeting bore unmistakable evidence of being 
done by a man who knew it was a forgery; that it was a publication 
partly taken from the real proceedings of the convention, and partly 
from the proceedings of a convention at another place; which showed 
that he had the real proceedings before him, and, taking one part of 
the resolutions, he threw out another part, aud substituted false and 
fraudulent ones in their stead. I pointed that out to him, and also 
that his friend Lanphier, who was editor of the ''Register "at that 
time and now is, must have known how it was done. Now whether 
he did it, cr got some friend to do it for him, I could not tell, but he 
certainly knew all about it. I pointed out to Judge Douglas that in 
his Freeport speech he had promised to investigate that matter. 
Does he now say he did not make that promise? I have a right to 
ask why he did not keep it? I call upon him to tell here to-day why 
he did not keep that promise ? That fraud has been traced up so that 
it lies between him, Harris, and Lanphier. There is little room for 
escape for Lanphier. Lanphier is doing the judge good service, and 
Douglas desires his word to be taken for the truth. He desires Lan- 
phier to be taken as authority in what he states in his newspaper. 
He desires Harris to be taken as a man of vast credibility, and when 
this thing lies among them, they will not press it to show where the 
guilt really belongs. Now, as he has said that he would investigate 
it, and implied that he would tell us the result of his investigation, I 
demand of him to tell why he did not investigate it, if he did not; 
and if he did, why he won't tell the result. I call upon him for that. 

This is the third time that Judge Douglas has assumed that he 
learned about these resolutions by Harris's attempting to use them 
against Norton on the floor of Congress. I tell Judge Douglas the 
public records of the country show that he himself attempted it 
upon Trumbull a month before Harris tried them on Norton — that 
Harris had the opportunity of learning it from him, rather than he 
from Harris. I now ask his attention to that part of the record on 
the case. My friends, I am not disposed to detain you longer in 
regard to that matter. 

I am told that I still have five minutes left. There is another 
matter I wish to call attention to. He says, when he discovered there 
was a mistake in that case, he came forward magnanimously, with- 
out my calling his attention to it, and explained it. I will tell you 
how he became so magnanimous. When the newspapers of our side 
had discovered and published it, and put it beyond his power to 
deny it, then he came forward and made a virtue of necessity by 
acknowledging it. Now he argues that all the point there was in 
those resolutions, although never passed at Springfield, is retained 
by their being passed at other localities. Is that true? He said 
I had a hand in passing them, in his opening speech; that I was in 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 485 

the convention, and helped to pass them. Do the resolutions touch 
me at all ? It strikes me there is some difference between holding 
a man responsible for an act which he has not done, and holding- him 
responsible for an act that he has done. You will judge whether 
there is any difference in the " spots." And he has taken credit for 
great magnanimity in coming forward and acknowledging what is 
proved on him beyond even the capacity of Judge Douglas to deny, 
and he has more capacity in that way than any other living man. 

Then he wants to know why I won't withdraw the charge in re- 
gard to a conspiracy to make slavery national, as he had withdrawn 
the one he made. May it please his worship, I will withdraw it when 
it is proven false on me as that was proven false on him. I will add 
a little more than that. I will withdraw it whenever a reasonable 
man shall be brought to believe that the charge is not true. I have 
asked Judge Douglas's attention to certain matters of fact tending 
to prove the charge of a conspiracy to nationalize slavery, and he 
says he convinces me that this is all untrue, beca.use Buchanan was 
not in the country at that time, and because the Dred Scott case had 
not then got into the Supreme Court ; and he says that I say the 
Democratic owners of Dred Scott got up the case. I never did say 
that. I defy Judge Douglas to show that I ever said so, for I never 
uttered it. [One of Mr. Douglas's reporters gesticulated affirma- 
tively at Mr. Lincoln.] I don't care if your hireling does say I did. 
I tell you myseK that I never said the *' Democratic " owners of Dred 
Scott got up the case. I have never pretended to know whether 
Dred Scott's owners were Democrats or Abolitionists, Free-soilers or 
Border Ruffians. I have said that there is evidence about the case 
tending to show that it was a made-up case for the purpose of get- 
ting that decision. I have said that that evidence was very strong in 
the fact that when Dred Scott was declared to be a slave, the owner 
of him made him free, showing that he had had the case tried, and 
the question settled, for such use as could be made of that decision ; 
he cared nothing about the property thus declared to be his by that 
decision. But my time is out, and I can say no more. 

October 15, 1858.— The Seventh and Last Joint Debate, 
AT Alton, Illinois. 

Senator Douglases Opening Speech. 

Ladies and Gentlemen: It is now nearly four months since the 
canvass between Mr. Lincoln and myself commenced. On the 16th 
of June the Republican convention assembled at Springfield, and 
nominated Mr. Lincoln as their candidate for the United States 
Senate, and he, on that occasion, delivered a speech in which he laid 
down what he understood to be the Republican creed, and the plat- 
form on which he proposed to stand during the contest. The prin- 
cipal points in that speech of Mr. Lincoln's were: First, that this 
government could not endure permanently divided into free and 
slave States, as our fathers made it; that they must all become free 
or all become slave; all become one thing or all become the other. 



486 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

otherwise this Union could not continue to exist. I give you his 
opinions almost in the identical language he used. His second prop- 
osition was a crusade against the Supreme Court of the United 
States, because of the Dred Scott decision; urging as an especial 
reason for his opposition to that decision that it deprived the negroes 
of the rights and benefits of that clause in the Constitution of the 
United States which guarantees to the citizens of each State all the 
rights, privileges, and immunities of the citizens of the several States. 
On the lOtli of July I returned home, and delivered a speech to the 
people of Chicago, in which I announced it to be my purpose to ap- 
peal to the people of Illinois to sustain the course I had pursued in 
Congress. In that speech I joined issue with Mr. Lincoln on the 
points which he had presented. Thus there was an issue clear and 
distinct made up between us on these two propositions laid down in 
the speech of Mr. Lincoln at Springfield, and controverted by me in 
my reply to him at Chicago. On the next day, the 11th of July, Mr. 
Lincoln replied to me at Chicago, explaining at some length, aud re- 
affirming the positions which he had taken in his Springfield speech. 
In that Chicago speech he even went further than he had before, and 
uttered sentiments in regard to the negro being on an equality with 
the white man. He adopted in support of this position the argument 
which Lovejoy, and Codding, and other Abolition lecturers had made 
familiar in the northern and central portions of the State, to wit : 
that the Declaration of Independence having declared all men free 
and equal by Divine law, negro equality was also an inalienable 
right, of which they could not be deprived. He insisted, in that 
speech, that the Declaration of Independence included the negro in 
the clause asserting that all men were created equal, and went so far 
as to say that if one man was allowed to take the position that it did 
not include the negro, others might take the position that it did not 
include other men. He said that all these distinctions between this 
man and that man, this race and the other race, must be discarded, 
and we must all stand by the Declaration of Independence, declaring 
that aU men were created equal. 

The issue thus being made up between Mr. Lincoln and myself 
on three points, we went before the people of the State. During 
the following seven weeks, between the Chicago speeches and our 
first meeting at Ottawa, he and I addressed large assemblages of the 
people in many of the central counties. In my speeches I confined 
myself closely to those three positions which he had taken, contro- 
verting his proposition that this Union could not exist as our fathers 
made it, divided into free and slave States, controverting his prop- 
osition of a crusade against the Supreme Court because of the Dred 
Scott decision, and controverting his proposition that the Declara- 
tion of Independence included and meant the negroes as well as the 
white men, when it declared all men to be created equal. I supposed 
at that time that these propositions constituted a distinct issue be- 
tween us, and that the opposite positions we had taken upon them 
we would be willing to be held to in every part of the State. I never 
intended to waver one hair's breadth from that issue either in the 
north or the south, or wherever I should address the people of Illi- 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 487 

nois. I hold that when the time arrives that I eaunot proclaim my 
political creed in the same terms not only in the northern bnt the 
sonthern part of Illinois, not only in the Northern but the Southern 
States, and wherever the American flag waves over xVmericau soil, 
that then there must be something wrong in that creed — so lougas 
we live under a common Constitution, so long as we live in a con- 
federacy of sovereign and equal States, joined together as one for 
certain purposes, that any political creed is radically wrong which 
cannot be proclaimed in every State and every section of that Union, 
alike. I took up Mr, Lincoln's three propositions in my several 
speeches, analyzed them, and pointed out what I believed to be the 
radical errors contained in them. First, in regard to his doctrine 
that this government was in violation of the law of God, which says 
that a house divided against itself cannot stand; I repudiated it as 
a slander upon the immortal framers of our Constitution. I then 
said, I have often repeated, and now again assert, that in my opinion 
our government can endure forever, divided into free and slave 
States as our fathers made it — each State having the right to pro- 
hibit, abolish, or sustain slavery, just as it pleases. This government 
was made upon the great basis of the sovereignty of the States, the 
right of each State to regulate its own domestic institutions to suit 
itself, and that right was conferred with the understanding and ex- 
pectation that inasmuch as each locality had separate interests, each 
locality must have different and distinct local and domestic institu- 
tions, corresponding to its wants and interests. Our fathers knew, 
when they made the government, that the laws and institutions 
which were well adapted to the green mountains of Vermont were 
unsuited to the rice plantations of South Carolina. They knew then, 
as well as we know now, that the laws and institutions which would 
be well adapted to the beautiful prairies of Illinois would not be 
suited to the mining regions of California. They knew that in a 
republic as broad as this, having such a variety of soil, climate, and 
interest, there must necessarily be a corresponding variety of local 
laws — the policy and institutions of each State adapted to its condi- 
tion and wants. For this reason this Union was established on the 
right of each State to do as it pleased on the question of slavery, 
and every other question, and the various States were not allowed to 
complain of, much less interfere with, the policy of their neighbors. 
Suppose the doctrine advocated by Mr. Lincoln and the Aboli- 
tionists of this day had prevailed when the Constitution was made, 
what would have been the result? Imagine for a moment that Mr. 
Lincoln had been a member of the convention that framed the Con- 
stitution of the United States, and that when its members were about 
to sign that wonderful document, he had arisen in that convention, 
as he did at Springfield this summer, and addressing himself to the 
President, had said : " A house divided against itself cannot stand; 
this government, divided into free and slave States cannot endure; 
they must all be free or all be slave, they must all be one thing or all 
the other; otherwise, it is a violation of the law of God, and cannot 
continue to exist" — suppose Mr. Lincoln had convinced that bodj'' 
of sages that that doctrine was sound, what would have been the 



488 ADDBESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

result? Remember that the Union was then composed of thirteen 
States, twelve of which were slave-holding and one free. Do you 
think that the one free State would have out-voted the twelve slave- 
holding States, and thus have secured the abolition of slavery? On 
the other hand, would not the twelve slave-holding States have out- 
voted the one free State, and thus have fastened slavery, by a consti- 
tutional provision, on every foot of the American republic forever? 
You see that if this Abolition doctrine of Mr. Lincoln had prevailed 
when the government was made, it would have established slavery 
as a permanent institution, in all the States, whether they wanted 
it or not ; and the question for us to determine in Illinois now, as one 
of the free States, is whether or not we are willing, having become 
the majority section, to enforce a doctrine on the minority which we 
would have resisted with our hearts' blood had it been attempted on 
us when we were in a minority. How has the South lost her power 
as the majority section in this Union, and how have the free States 
gained it, except under the operation of that principle which declares 
the right of the peofjle of each State and each Territory to form and 
regulate their domestic institutions in their own way ? It was under 
that principle that slavery was abolished in New Hampshire, Rhode 
Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; it 
was under that principle that one half of the slave-holding States 
became free; it was under that principle that the number of free 
States increased until, from being one out of twelve States, we have 
grown to be the majority of States of the whole Union, with the 
power to control the House of Representatives and Senate, and the 
power, consequently, to elect a President by Northern votes with- 
out the aid of a Southern State. Having obtained this power under 
the operation of that great principle, are you now prepared to aban- 
don the principle, and declare that merely because we have the power 
you will wage a war against the Southern States and their institu- 
tions until you force them to abolish slavery everywhere ? 

After having pressed these arguments home on Mr. Lincoln for 
seven weeks, publishing a number of my speeches, we met at Ot- 
tawa in joint discussion, and he then began to crawfish a little, and 
let himself down. I there propounded certain questions to him. 
Amongst others, I asked him whether he would vote for the admis- 
sion of any more slave States in the event the people wanted them. 
He would not answer. I then told him that if he did not answer 
the question there I would renew it at Freeport, and would then 
trot him down into Egypt and again put it to him. Well, at Free- 
port, knowing that the next joint discussion took place in Egypt, 
and being in dread of it, he did answer my question in regard to 
no more slave States in a mode which he hoped would be satisfac- 
tory to me, and accomplish the object he had in view. I will show 
you what his answer was. After saying that he was not pledged to 
the Republican doctrine of *' no more slave States," he declared : 

I state to you freely, frankly, that I should be exceedingly sorry to ever be 
put in the positiou of having to pass upon that question. I should be ex- 
ceedingly glad to know that there never would be another slave State 
admitted into this Union. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 489 

Here permit me to remark that I do not think the people will ever 
force him into a position against his will. He went on to say : 

But I must add, in regard to this, that if slavery shall be kept out of the 
Territory during the territorial existence of any one given Territory, and 
then the people should — having a fan* chance and a clear field when they 
come to adopt a constitution — if they should do the extraordinary thing of 
adopting a slave constitution, uninfluenced by the actual presence of the 
institution among them, I see no alternative, l£ we own the coxmtry, but we 
must admit it into this Union. 

That answer Mr. Lincoln supposed would satisfy the old-line 
Whigs, composed of Kentuckians and Virginians, down in the 
southern part of the State. Now, what does it amount to ? I de- 
sired to know wliether he would vote to allow Kansas to come into 
the Union with slavery or not, as her people desired. He would not 
answer, but in a roundabout way said that if slavery should be kept 
out of a Territory during the whole of its territorial existence, and 
then the people, when they adopted a State constitution, asked ad- 
mission as a slave State, he supposed he would have to let the State 
come in. The case I put to him was an entirely different one. I 
desired to know whether he would vote to admit a State if Congress 
had not prohibited slavery in it during its territorial existence, as 
Congress never pretended to do under Clay's compromise measures 
of 1850. He would not answer, and I have not yet been able to get 
an answer from him. I have asked him whether he would vote to 
admit Nebraska if her people asked to come in as a State with a 
constitution recognizing slavery, and he refused to answer. I have 
put the question to him with reference to New Mexico, and he has 
not uttered a word in answer. I have enumerated the Territories, 
one after another, putting the same question to him with reference 
to each, and he has not said, and will not say, whether, if elected to 
Congress, he will vote to admit any Territory now in existence with 
such a constitution as her people may adopt. He invents a case 
which does not exist, and cannot exist, under this government, and 
answers it ; but he will not answer the question I put to him in con- 
nection with any of the Territories now in existence. The contract 
we entered into with Texas when she entered the Union obliges us 
to allow four States to be formed out of the old State, and admitted 
with or without slavery, as the respective inhabitants of each may 
determine. I have asked Mr. Lincoln three times in our joint dis- 
cussions whether he would vote to redeem that pledge, and he has 
never yet answered. He is as silent as the grave on the subject. 
He would rather answer as to a state of the case which will never 
arise than commit himself by telling what he would do in a case 
which would come up for his action soon after his election to Con- 
gress. Why can he not say whether he is willing to allow the peo- 
ple of each State to have slavery or not, as they please, and to come 
into the Union when they have the requisite population as a slave 
or a free State, as they decide ? I have no trouble in answering the 
question. I have said everywhere, and now repeat it to you, that if 
the people of Kansas want a slave State they have a right, under 
the Constitution of the United States, to form such a State, and I 



490 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

will let them come into the Union with slavery or without it, as 
they determine. If the people of any other Territory desire slavery, 
let them have it. If they do not want it, let them prohibit it. It 
is their business, not mine. It is none of our business in Illinois 
whether Kansas is a free State or a slave State. It is none of your 
business in Missouri whether Kansas shaU adopt slavery or reject 
it. It is the business of her people, and none of yours. The people 
of Kansas have as much right to decide that question for themselves 
as you have in Missouri to decide it for yourselves, or we in Illinois 
to decide it for ourselves. 

And here I may repeat what I have said in every speech I have 
made in Illinois, that I fought the Lecompton constitution to its 
death, not because of the slavery clause in it, but because it was not 
the act and deed of the people of Kansas. I said then in Congress, 
and I say now, that if the people of Kansas want a slave State, they 
have a right to have it. If they wanted the Lecompton constitution, 
they had a right to have it. I was opposed to that constitution be- 
cause I did not believe that it was tne act and deed of the people, 
but, on the contrary, the act of a small, pitiful minority, acting in the 
name of the majority. When at last it was determined to send that 
constitution back to the people, and accordingly, in August last, the 
question of admission under it was submitted to a popular vote, the 
citizens rejected it by nearly ten to one, thus showing conclusively 
that I was right when I said that the Lecompton constitution was 
not the act and deed of the people of Kansas, and did not embody 
their will. 

I hold that there is no power on earth, under our system of gov- 
ernment, which has the right to force a constitution upon an un- 
willing people. Suppose that there had been a majority of ten to one 
in favor of slavery in Kansas, and suppose there had been an Aboli- 
tion President, and an Abolition administration, and by some means 
the Abolitionists succeeded in forcing an Abolition constitution on 
those slaveholding people, would the people of the South have sub- 
mitted to that act for one instant! Well, if you of the South would 
not have submitted to it a day, how can-you, as fair, honorable, and 
honest men, insist on putting a slave constitution on a people who 
desire a free State? Your safety and ours depend upon both of us 
acting in good faith, and living up to that great principle which as- 
serts the right of every people to form and regulate their domestic 
institutions to suit themselves, subject only to the Constitution of 
the United States. 

Most of the men who denounced my course on the Lecompton 
question objected to it not because I was not right, but because they 
thought it expedient at that time, for the sake of keeping the party 
together, to do wrong. I never knew the Democratic party to violate 
any one of its principles out of policy or expediency, that it did not 
pay the debt with sorrow. There is no safety or success for our party 
unless we always do right, and trust the consequences to God and 
the people. I chose not to depart from principle for the sake of ex- 
pediency in the Lecompton question, and I never intend to do it on 
that or any other question. 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 491 

But I am told that I would have been all right if I had only voted 
for the English bill after Leeorapton was killed. You kuow a gen- 
eral pardon was granted to all political offenders on the Lecompton 
question, provided they would only vote for the English bill. I did 
not accept the benefits of that pardon, for the reason that I had been 
right in the course I had pursued, and hence did not require any 
forgiveness. Let us see how the result has been worked out. Eng- 
lish brought in his bill referring the Lecompton constitution back 
to the people, with the provision that if it was rejected Kansas 
should be kept out of the Union until she had the full ratio of pop- 
ulation required for a member of Congress, thus in effect declaring 
that if the people of Kansas would only consent to come into the 
Union under the Lecompton constitution, and have a slave State 
when they did not want it, they should be admitted with a population 
of 35,000; but that if they were so obstinate as to insist upon having 
just such a constitution as they thought best, and to desire admis- 
sion as a free State, then they should be kept out until they had 
93,420 inhabitants. I then said, and I now repeat to you, that when- 
ever Kansas has people enough for a slave State "she has people 
enough for a free State. I was, and am, willing to adopt the rule that 
no State shall ever come into the Union until she has the full ratio 
of population for a member of Congress, provided that rule is made 
uniform. I made that proposition in the Senate last winter, but a 
majority of the senators would not agree to it ; and I then said to 
them, " If you will not adopt the general rule, I will not consent to 
make an exception of Kansas." 

I hold that it is a violation of the fundamental principles of this 
government to throw the weight of federal power into the scale, 
either in favor of the free or the slave States. Equality among all 
the States of this Union is a fundamental principle in our political 
system. We have no more right to throw the weight of the Federal 
(xovernment into the scale in favor of the slaveholding than of the 
free States, and, least of all, should our friends in the South consent 
for a moment that Congress should withhold its powers either way 
when they know that there is a majority against them in both 
houses of Congress. 

Fellow-citizens, how have the supporters of the English bill stood 
up to their pledges not to admit Kansas until she obtained a popu- 
lation of 93,420 in the event she rejected the Lecompton constitu- 
tion? How? The newspapers inform us that English himself, whilst 
conducting his canvass for reelection, and in order to secure it, 
pledged himself to his constituents that if returned he would dis- 
regard his own bill and vote to admit Kansas into the Union with 
such population as she might have when she made application. We 
are informed that every Democratic candidate for Congress in all 
the States where elections have recently been held was pledged 
against the English bill, with perhaps one or two exceptions. Now, 
if I had only done as these anti-Lecompton men who voted for the 
English bill in Congi'css, pledging themselves to refuse to admit 
Kansas if she refused to become a slave State until she had a popu- 
lation of 93,420, and then returned to their people, forfeited their 



492 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

pledge, and made a new pledge to admit Kansas any time she applied, 
without rej.ard to population, I would have had no trouble. You saw 
the whole power and patronage of the Federal Government wielded in 
Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to elect anti-Leeompton men to Con- 
gress, who voted against Lecompton, then voted for the English bill, 
and then denounced the English bill, and pledged themselves to their 
people to disregard it. My sin consists in not having given a pledge, 
and then in not having afterward forfeited it. For that reason, in 
this State, every postmaster, every route agent, every collector of the 
ports, and every federal office-holder, forfeits his head the moment 
he expresses a preference for the Democratic candidates against 
Lincoln and his Abolition associates. A Democratic administration, 
which we helped to bring into power, deems it consistent with its 
fidelity to principle, and its regard to duty, to wield its power in this 
State in behalf of the Republican Abolition candidates in every 
county and every congressional district against the Democratic 
party. All I have to say in reference to the matter is that if that 
administration have not regard enough for principle, if they are not 
sufficiently attached to the creed of the Democratic party to bury 
forever their personal hostilities in order to succeed in carrying out 
our glorious principles, I have. I have no personal difficulty with 
Mr. Buchanan or his cabinet. He chose to make certain recom- 
mendations to Congress, as he had a right to do, on the Lecompton 
question. I could not vote in favor of them. I had as much right to 
judge for myself how I should vote as he had how he should recom- 
mend. He undertook to say to me, "If you do not vote as I tell you, 
I will take off the heads of your friends." I repUed to him, *' You 
did not elect me; I represent Illinois, and I am accountable to Illinois, 
as my constituency, and to God, but not to the President or to any 
other power on earth." 

And now this warfare is made on me because I would not sur- 
render my convictions of duty, because I would not abandon my 
constituency, and receive the orders of the executive authorities how 
I should vote in the Senate of the United States. I hold that an 
attempt to control the Senate on the part of the executive is subver- 
sive of the principles of our Constitution. The executive depart- 
ment is independent of the Senate, and the Senate is independent of 
the President. In matters of legislation the President has a veto on 
the action of the Senate, and in appointments and treaties the Senate 
has a veto on the President. He has no more right to tell me how I 
shall vote on his appointments than I have to tell him whether he 
shall veto or approve a bill that the Senate has passed. Whenever 
you recognize the right of the executive to say to a senator, " Do 
this, or I will take off the heads of your friends," you convert this 
government from a republic into a despotism. Whenever you recog- 
nize the right of a President to say to a member of Congress, "Vote 
as I tell you, or I will bring a power to bear against you at home 
which will crush j^ou," you destroy the independence of the repre- 
sentative, and convert him into a tool of executive power. I re- 
sisted this invasion of the constitutional rights of a senator, and I 
intend to resist it as long as I have a voice to speak, or a vote to give. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 493 

Yet Mr. Buchanan cannot provoke me to abandon one iota of Demo- 
cratic principles out of revenge or hostility to his course. I stand 
by the platform of the Democratic party, and by its organization, 
and support its nominees. If there are any who choose to bolt, the 
fact onW shows that they are not as good Democrats as I am. 

My friends, there never was a time when it was as important for 
the Democratic party, for all national men, to rally and stand toge- 
ther as it is to-day. We find all sectional men giving up past dif- 
ferences and uniting on the one question of slavery, and when we 
find sectional men thus uniting, we should unite to resist them and 
their treasonable designs. Such was the case in 1850, when Clay 
left the quiet and peace of his home, and again entered upon public 
life to quell agitation and restore peace to a distracted Union. Then 
we Democrats, with Cass at our head, welcomed Henry Clay, whom 
the whole nation regarded as having been preserved by God for the 
times. He became our leader in that great fight, and we rallied around 
him the same as the Whigs rallied around Old Hickory in 1832 to 
put down nullification. Thus you see that while Whigs and Demo- 
crats fouglit fearlessly in old times about banks, the tariff, distribu- 
tion, the specie circular, and the subtreasury, all united as a band of 
brothers when the peace, harmony, or integrity of the Union was im- 
periled. It was so in 1850, when Abolitionism had even so far di- 
vided this country. North and South, as to endanger the peace of the 
Union. Wliigs and Democrats united in establishing the compromise 
measures of that year, and restoring tranquillity and good feeling. 
These measures passed on the joint action of the two parties. They 
rested on the great principle that the people of each State and each 
Territory should be left perfectly fi'ee to form and regulate their do- 
mestic institutions to suit themselves. You Whigs and we Democrats 
justified them in that principle. In 1854, when it became necessary 
to organize the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, I brought for- 
ward the bill on the same principle. In the Kansas-Nebraska bill 
you find it declared to be the true intent and meaning of the act 
not to legislate slavery into any State or Territory, nor to exclude 
it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form 
and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way. 

I stand on that same platform in 1858 that I did in 1850, 1854, 
and 1856. The Washington " Union," pretending to be the organ 
of the administration, in the number of the 5tli of this month, 
devotes three columns and a half to establish these propositions : 
first, that Douglas in his Freeport speech held the same doctrine 
that he did in his Nebraska bill in 1854 ; second, that in 1854 Doug- 
las jnstified the Nebraska bill upon the ground that it was based 
upon the snnie principle as Clay's compromise measures of 1850. 
The "Union" thus proved that Douglas was the same in 1858 that 
he was in 1856, 1854, and 1850, and consequently argued that he was 
never a Democrat. Is it not funny that I was never a Democrat? 
There is no pretense that I have changed a hair's-broadth. The 
" Union '' proves by my speeches that I explained the compromise 
measures of 1850 just as I do now, and that I explained the Kansas 
and Nebraska bill in 1854 just as I did in my Freeport speech, and 



494 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

yet says that I am not a Democrat, and cannot be trusted, because 
1 have not changed during the whole of that time. It has occurred 
to me that in 1854 the author of the Kansas and Nebraska bill was 
considered a pretty good Democrat. It has occurred to me that iu 
1856, when I was exerting every nerve and every energy for James 
Buchanan, standing on the same platform then tliat I do now, that I 
was a pretty good Democrat. They now tell me that I am not a 
Democrat, because I assert that the people of a Territory, as well as 
those of a State, have the right to decide for themselves whether sla- 
very can or cannot exist in such Territory. Let me read what James 
Buchanan said on that point when he accepted the Democratic nom- 
ination for the presidency in 1856. In his letter of acceptance, he 
used the following language : 

The recent legislation of Congress respecting domestic slavery, derived 
as it has been from the original and pure fountain of legitimate political 
power, the will of the majority, promises ere long to aUay the dangerous 
excitement. This legislation is founded upon principles as ancient as 
free government itself, and in accordance with them has simply declared 
that the people of a Territory, like those of a State, shall decide for them- 
selves whether slavery shall or shall not exist within their hmits. 

Dr. Hope will there find my answer to the question he propounded 
to me before I commenced speaking. Of course no man will consider 
it an answer, who is outside of the Democratic organization, bolts 
Democratic nominations, and indirectly aids to put Abolitionists into 
power over Democrats. But whether Dr. Hope considers it an answer 
or not, every fair-minded man will see that James Buchanan has an- 
swered the question, and has asserted that the people of a Territory, 
like those of a State, shall decide for themselves whether slavery shall 
or shall not exist within their limits. I answer specifically, if you want 
a further answer, and say that while under the decision of the Supreme 
Coui't, as recorded in the opinion of Chief Justice Taney, slaves are 
property like all other property, and can be carried into any Terri- 
tory of the United States the same as any other description of prop- 
erty, yet when you get them there they are subject to the local law 
of the Territory just like all other property. You will find in a re- 
cent speech delivered by that able and eloquent statesman, Hon. 
Jefferson Davis, at Bangor, Maine, that he took the same view of 
this subject that I did in my Freeport speech. He there said : 

If the inhabitants of any Territory should refuse to enact such laws and 
police regulations as would give sectu'ity to then- property or to his, it would 
be rendered more or less valueless in proportion to the difficulties of holding 
it without such protection. In the case of propei'ty in the labor of man, or 
what is usually called slave property, the insecurity would be so great that 
the owner could not ordinarily retain it. Therefore, though the right would 
remain, the remedy being withheld, it would follow that the owner would 
be practically debaired, by the circumstances of the case, from taking slave 
property into a Territory where the sense of the inhabitants was opposed to 
its introduction. So much for the oft-repeated faUacy of forcing slavery 
upon any community. 

You will also find that the distinguished Speaker of the present 
House of Representatives, Hon. James L. Orr, construed the Kansas 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 495 

and Nebraska bill in this same way in 1856, and also that great intel- 
lect of the South, Alexander H. Stephens, put the same construction 
upon it in Congress that 1 did in my Freeport speech. The whole 
South is ralljdng to the support of the doctrine that if the people 
of a Territory want slavery they have a right to have it, and if they 
do not want it that no power on earth can force it upon them. I 
hold that there is no principle on earth more sacred to all the friends 
of freedom than that which says that no institution, no law, no con- 
stitution, should be forced on an unwilling people contrary to their 
wishes; and I assert that the Kansas and Nebraska bill contains that 
principle. It is the great principle contained in that bill. It is the 
principle on which James Buchanan was made President. Without 
that principle he never would have been made President of the 
United States. I will never violate or abandon that doctrine, if I 
have to stand alone. I have resisted the blandishments and threats 
of power on the one side, and seduction on the other, and have stood 
immovably for that principle, fighting for it when assailed by Nor- 
thern mobs, or threatened by Southern hostility. I have defended it 
against the North and the South, and I will defend it against who- 
ever assails it, and I will follow it wherever its logical conclusions 
lead me. I say to you that there is but one hope, one safety for this 
country, and that is to stand immovably by that principle which de- 
clares the right of each State and each Territory to decide these ques- 
tions for themselves. This government was founded on that principle, 
and must be administered in the same sense in which it was founded. 
But the Abolition party really think that under the Declaration 
of Independence the negro is equal to the white man, and that negro 
equality is an inalienable right conferred by the Almighty, and hence 
that all human laws in violation of it are null and void. With such 
men it is no use for me to argue. I hold that the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence had no reference to negroes at all when 
they declared all men to be created equal. They did not mean negroes, 
nor the savage Indians, nor the Feejee Islanders, nor any other barbar- 
ous race. They were speaking of white men. They alluded to men of 
European birth and European descent — to white men, and to none 
others, when they declared that doctrine. I hold that this govern- 
ment was established on the white basis. It was established by white 
men, for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and 
should be administered by white men, and none others. But it does 
not follow, by any means, that merely because the negro is not a 
citizen, and merely because he is not our equal, that therefore he 
should be a slave. On the contrary, it does follow that we ought 
to extend to the negro race, and to all other dependent races, all the 
rights, all the privileges, and all the immunities which they can ex- 
ercise consistently with the safety of society. Humanity requires 
that we should give them all those privileges; Christianity com- 
mands that we should extend those privileges to them. The ques- 
tion then arises, What are those privileges, and what is the nature 
and extent of them! My answer is that that is a question which 
each State must answer for itself. We in Illinois have decided it for 
ourselves. We tried slavery, kept it up for twelve years, and find- 



496 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ing that it was not profitable, we abolished it for that reason, and 
became a free State. We adopted in its stead the policy that a negro 
in this State shall not be a slave and shall not be a citizen. We have 
a right to adopt that policy. For my part, I think it is a wise and 
sound policy for us. You in Missouri must judge for yourselves 
whether it is a wise policy for you. If you choose to follow our 
example, very good; if you reject it, still well; it is your business, 
not ours. So with Kentucky. Let Kentucky adopt a policy to suit 
herself. If we do not like it, we will keep away from it ; and if she 
does not like ours, let her stay at home, mind her own business, and 
let us alone. If the people of all the States will act on that great 
principle, and each State mind its own business, attend to its own 
affairs, take (!are of its own negroes, and not meddle with its neigh- 
bors, then there will be peace between the North and the South, the 
East and the West, throughout the whole Union. Why can we not 
thus have peace ? Why should we thus allow a sectional party to 
agitate this country, to array the North against the South, and con- 
vert us into enemies instead of friends, merely that a few ambitious 
men may ride into power on a sectional hobby? How long is it 
since these ambitious Northern men wished for a sectional organ- 
ization? Did any one of them dream of a sectional party as long 
as the North was the weaker section and the South the stronger? 
Then all were opposed to sectional parties. But the moment the 
North obtained the majority in the House and Senate by the admis- 
sion of California, and could elect a President without the aid of 
Southern votes, that moment ambitious Northern men formed a 
scheme to excite the North against the South, and make the people 
be governed in their votes by geographical lines, thinking that the 
North, being the stronger section, would outvote the South, and con- 
sequently they, the leaders, would ride into office on a sectional 
hobby. I am told that my honr is out. It was very short. 

Mr. Lincoln's Reply in the Alton Joint Debate, 

Ladies and Gentlemen : I have been somewhat, in my own mind, 
complimented by a large portion of Judge Douglas's speech — I 
mean that portion which he devotes to the controversy between him- 
self and the present administration. This is the seventh time Judge 
Douglas and myself have met in these joint discussions, and he has 
been gradually improving in regard to his war with the administra- 
tion. At Quincy, day before yesterday, he was a little more severe 
upon the administration than I had heard him upon anj^ occasion, 
and I took pains to compliment him for it. I then told him to 
"give it to them with all the power he had"; and as some of them 
were present, I told them I would be very much obliged if they 
would give it to him in about the same way. I take it that he has 
now vastly improved upon the attack he made then upon the adminis- 
tration. I flatter myself he has really taken my advice on this subject. 
All I can say now is to re-commend*^ to him and to them what I then 
commended — to prosecute the war against one another in the most 
vigorous manner. I say to them again, '* Go it, husband ; go it, bear ! " 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 497 

There is one other thing I mil mention before I leave this branch 
of the discussion — although I do not consider it much of my busi- 
ness, anyway. I refer to that part of the judge's remarks where he 
undertakes to involve Mr. Buchanan in an inconsistency. He reads 
something from Mr. Buchanan, from which be undertakes to involve 
him in an inconsistency; and he gets something of a clieer for 
having done so. I would only remind the judge that while he is 
very valiantly fighting for the Nebraska bill and the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise, it has been but a little while since he was the 
valiant advocate of the Missouri Compromise. I want to know if 
Buchanan has not as much right to be inconsistent as Douglas has? 
Has Douglas the exclusive right in this country of being on all 
sides of all questions? Is nobody allowed that high privilege but 
himself? Is he to have an entire monopoly on that subject? 

So far as Judge Douglas addressed his speech to me, or so far as 
it was about me, it is my business to pay some attention to it. I 
have heard the judge state two or three times what he has stated 
to-day — that in a speech which I made at Springfield, Illinois, I 
had in a very especial manner complained that the Supreme Court 
in the Dred Scott case had decided that a negro could never be 
a citizen of the United States. I have omitted, by some accident, 
heretofore to analyze this statement, and it is required of me to 
notice it now. In point of fact it is untrue. I never have com- 
plained especially of the Dred Scott decision because it held that a 
negro could not be a citizen, and the judge is always wrong when 
he says I ever did so complain of it. I have the speech here, and 
I will thank him or any of his friends to show where I said that a 
negro should be a citizen, and complained especially of the Dred 
Scott decision because it declared he could not be one. I have done 
no such thing, and Judge Douglas so persistently insisting that I 
have done so has strongly impressed me with the belief of a prede- 
termination on his part to misrepresent me. He could not get his 
foundation for insisting that I was in favor of this negro equality 
anywhere else as well as he could by assuming that untrue proposi- 
tion. Let me tell this audience what is true in regard to that matter; 
and the means by which they may correct me if I do not tell them 
truly is by a recurrence to the speech itself. I spoke of the Dred 
Scott decision in my Springfield speech, and I was then endeavoring 
to prove that the Dred Scott decision was a portion of a system or 
scheme to make slavery national in this country. I pointed out 
what things had been decided by the court. I mentioned as a fact 
that they had decided that a negro could not be a citizen — that 
they had done so, as I supposed, to deprive the negro, under all cir- 
cumstances, of the remotest possibility of ever becoming a citizen 
and claiming the rights of a citizen of the United States under a 
certain clause of the Constitution. I stated that, without making 
any complaint of it at all. I then went on and stated the other 
points decided in the ease, — namely, that the bringing of a negro 
into the State of Illinois, and holding him in slavery for two years 
here, was a matter in regard to which they would not decide whether 
it would make him free or not j that they decided the further point 
Vol. I.— 32. 



498 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

that taking him into a United States Territory where slavery was 
prohibited by act of Congress, did not make him free, because that 
act of Congress, as they hehi, was unconstitutional. I mentioned 
these three things as making up the points decided in that case. I 
mentioned them in a lump taken in connection with the introduction 
of the Nebraska bill, and the amendment of Chase, offered at the 
time, declaratory of the right of the people of the Territories to 
exclude slaver}^ which was voted down by the friends of the bill. I 
mentioned all these things together, as evidence tending to prove a 
combination and conspiracy to make the institution of slavery na- 
tional. In that connection and in that way I mentioned the decision 
on the point that a negro could not be a citizen, and in no other 
connection. 

Out of this, Judge Douglas builds up his beautiful fabrication — 
of my purpose to introduce a perfect social and political equality 
between the white and the black races. His assertion that I made 
an ^' especial objection " (that is his exact language) to the decision 
on this account, is untrue in point of fact. 

Now, while I am upon this subject, and as Henry Clay has been 
alluded to, I desire to place myself, in connection with Mr. Clay, as 
nearly right before this people as may be. I am quite aware what 
the judge's object is here by all these allusions. He knows that we 
are before an audience having strong sympathies southward by re- 
lationship, place of birth, and so on. He desires to place me in an 
extremely Abolition attitude. He read upon a former occasion, and 
alludes without reading to-day, to a portion of a speech which I de- 
livered in Chicago. In his quotations from that speech, as he has 
made them upon former occasions, the extracts were taken in such 
a way as, I suppose, brings them within the definition of what is 
called garbling — taking portions of a speech which, when taken bj'' 
themselves, do not present the entire sense of the speaker as ex- 
pressed at the time. I propose, therefore, out of that same speech, to 
show how one portion of it which he skipped over (taking an extract 
before and an extract after) will give a different idea, and the true 
idea I intended to convey. It will take me some little time to read 
it, but I believe I will occupy the time that way. 

You have heard him frequently aUude to my controversy with 
him in regard to the Declaration of Independence. I confess that I 
have had a struggle with Judge Douglas on that matter, and I will 
try briefly to place myself right in regard to it on this occasion. I 
said — and it is between the extracts Judge Douglas has taken from 
this speech, and put in his published speeches : 

It may 1)6 arprued that there are certain conditions that make necessities 
and impose them upon us, and to the extent that a necessity is imposed 
upon a man he must submit to it. I think that was the condition in which 
we found ourselves when we estabhshed this government. We had slaves 
among us ; we could not get our Constitution unless we permitted them to 
remain in slavery ; we coidd not secui-e the good we did secure if we grasped 
for more : and haA^ng by necessity submitted to that much, it does not de- 
stroy the principle that is the charter of our liberties. Let that charter 
remain as our standard. 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 499 

Now I have upon all occasions declared as strongly as Judge 
Douglas against the disposition to interfere with the existing insti- 
tution of slavery. You hear me read it from the same speecli from 
which he takes garbled extracts for the purpose of proving upon me 
a disposition to interfere with the institution of slavery, and estab- 
lish a perfect social and political equality between negroes and white 
people. 

Allow me, while upon this subject, briefly to present one other ex- 
tract from a speech of mine, made more than a year ago, at Spring- 
field, in discussing this ver}^ same question, soon after Judge Douglas 
took his ground that negroes were not included in the Declaration 
of Independence : 

I think the authors of that notable instrumeut intended to include all 
men, but they did not intend to declare all men equal in all i-espects. They 
did not mean to say that all men were equal in color, size, intellect, moi'al 
development, or social capacity. They defined with toleraJ)le distinctness 
in what respects they did consider all men created equal — equal in certain in- 
alienable rights, among which are hfe, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
This they said, and this they meant. They cUd not mean to as.sert the 
obvious untruth, that all were then actually enjoj'ing that equality, nor yet 
that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had 
no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the right, 
so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as cu-cumst<inces should 
permit. 

They meant to set up a standai'd maxim for free society wliich should be 
famiUar to all and revered by all — constantly looked to, ct)nstantly labored 
for, and even, though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated ; 
and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augment- 
ing the happiness and v^alue of life to all people, of all colors, everywhere. 

There, again, are the sentiments I have expressed in regard to the 
Declaration of Independence upon a former occasion — sentiments 
which have been put in print and read wherever anybody cared to 
know what so humble an individual as myself chose to say in regard 
to it. 

At Galesburg the other day, I said, in answer to Judge Douglas, 
that three years ago there never had been a man, so far as I knew 
or believed, in the whole world, who had said that the Declaration of 
Independence did not include negroes in the term "all men.'' I re- 
assert it to-day. I assert that Judge Douglas and all his friends 
may search the whole records of the country, and it will be a matter 
of great astonishment to me if they shall be able to find that one 
human being three years ago had ever uttered the astounding sen- 
timent that the term ''all men'' in the Declaration did not include 
the negro. Do not let me be misunderstood. I know that more than 
three years ago there were men who, finding this assertion constantly 
in the way of their schemes to bring about the ascendancy and per- 
petuation of slavery, denied the truth of it. I know that Mr. Cal- 
houn and all the politicians of his school denied the truth of the 
Declaration. I know that it ran along in the mouth of some South- 
ern men for a period of years, ending at last in that shameful though 
rather forcible declaration of Pettit of Indiana, upon the floor of the 



500 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

United States Senate, tliat the Declaration of Independence was in 
that respect "a self-evident lie," rather than a self-evident truth. 
But I say, with a perfect knowledge of all this hawking at the Dec- 
laration without directly attacking it, that three years ago there 
never had lived a man who had ventured to assail it in the sneaking 
way of pretending to believe it and then asserting it did not include 
the negro. I believe the first man who ever said it was Chief Jus- 
tice Taney in the Dred Scott case, and the next to him was our friend, 
Stephen *A. Douglas. And now it has become the catchword of 
the entire party. I Avould like to call upon his friends everywhere 
to consider how they have come in so short a time to view this mat- 
ter in a way so entirely different from their former belief ; to ask 
whether they are not being l)orue along by an irresistible current — 
whither, they know not. 

In answer to my proposition at Galesburg last week, I see that 
some man in Chicago has got up a letter addressed to the Chicago 
''Times," to show, as he professes, that somebody had said so before; 
and he signs himself "An Old-Line Whig," if I remember correctly. 
In the first place 1 would say he was not an old-line Whig. I am some- 
what acquainted with old-line AVliigs. I was with the old-line Whigs 
from tlie origin to the end of that party; I became pretty well ac- 
quainted with them, and I know they always had some sense, what- 
ever else you could ascribe to them. I know there never was one who 
had not more sense than to try to show by the evidence he produces 
that some man had, prior to the time I named, said that negroes were 
not included in the term " all men" in the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. What is the evidence he produces'? I will bring forward his 
evidence, and let you see what he offers by way of showing that some- 
body more than three years ago had said negroes were not included 
in the Declaration. He brings forward part of a speech from 
Henry Clay — the part of the speech of Henry Clay which I used to 
bring forward to prove precisely the contrary'. I guess we are sur- 
rounded to some extent to-day by the old friends of Mr. Clay, and 
they will be glad to hear anything from that authority. While he 
was in Indiana a man presented a petition to liberate his negroes, 
and he (Mr. Clay) made a speech in answer to it, which I suppose he 
carefully wrote himself and caused to be published. I have before 
me an extract from that speech which constitutes the evidence this 
pretended " Old-Line Whig" at Chicago brought forward to show 
that Mr. Clay did n't suppose the negro was included in the Decla- 
ration of Independence. Hear what Mr. Clay said : 

And what is the foundation of tins appeal to me in Indiana, to Hberate 
the slaves under my care in Kentucky ? It is a general declaration in the 
act announcing to the world the independence of the thirteen American 
colonies, that all men are created equal, Nov.', as an abstract principle, 
there is no doubt of the truth of that declaration ; and it is desirable, in the 
original construction of society, and in organized societies, to keep it in 
view as a great fundamental principle. But then I apprehend tliat in no 
.society that ever did exist, or ever shall be formed, was or can the equality 
asserted among the members of the human race be practically enforced and 
earned out. There are portions, large portions, — women, minors, insane, 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 501 

culprits, transient sojourners,— that will always probably remain subject 
to the frovernment of another portion of the community. 

That declaration, whatever may be the extent of its import, was made by 
the delegations of the thirteen States. In most of them slavery existed, and 
had lou^j- existed, and was established by law. It was introduced and foi'ced 
upon the colonies by the paramount law of England. Do you believe that 
in making that declaration the States that concurred in it intended tliat it 
should be tortured into a virtual emancipation of all the slaves within their 
respective limits ? Would Vh'ginia and other Southern States have ever 
united in a declaration which was to be intei*preted into an abolition of 
slavery among them ? Did any one of the thu'teen colonies entertain such 
a design or expectation 1 To impute such a secret and una vowed purpose 
would be to charge a political fraud upon the noblest band of patriots that 
ever assembled in council — a fraud upon the confederacy of the Revolu- 
tion — a fraud upon the union of those States whose constitution not only 
recognized the lawfulness of slavery, but permitted the importation of 
slaves from Africa until the year 1808. 

This is the entire quotation brought forward to prove that some- 
body previous to three years ago had said the negro was not in- 
cluded in the term "all men" in the Declaration. How does it do 
so ? In what way has it a tendency to prove that ? Mr. Clay says 
it is true as an abstract principle that all men are created equal, but 
that we cannot practically apply it in all cases. He illustrates this 
by bringing forward the cases of females, minors, and insane per- 
sons, with whom it cannot be enforced ; but he says that it is true 
as an abstract principle in the organization of society as well as in 
organized society, and it should be kept in view as a fundamental 
principle. Let me read a few words more before I add some com- 
ments of my own. Mr. Clay says a little further on : 

I desire no concealment of my opinions in regard to the institution of 
slavery. I look upon it as a great evU, and deeply lament that we have de- 
rived it fi-om the parent government, and from oiu* ancestors. I wish 
every slave in the United States was in the country of his ancestors. But 
here they are, and the question is, how can they be best dealt with ? If a 
state of nature existed, and we were about to lay the foundations of society, 
no man woidd be more strongly opposed than I should be, to incorporating 
the institution of slavery among its elements. 

Now, here in this same book — in this same speech — in this same 
extract brought forward to prove that Mr. Clay held that the negro 
was not included in the Declaration of Independence — we find no 
such statement on his part, but instead the declaration that it is a 
great fundamental truth, which should be constantly kept in view in 
the organization of society and in societies already organized. But 
if I say a word about it ; if I attempt, as Mr. Clay said all good men 
ought to do, to keep it in view; if, in this " organized society," I ask 
to have the public eye turned upon it ; if I ask, in relation to the or- 
ganization of new Territories, that the public eye should be turned 
upon it, — forthwith I am vilified as you hear me to-day. What 
have I done that I have not the license of Henry Clay's illustrious 
example here in doing? Have I done aught that I have not his au- 
thority for, while maintaining that in organizing new Territories 



502 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and societies, this fundamental principle should be regarded, and in 
organized society holding it up to the public view and recognizing 
what he recognized as the great principle of free government? 

And when this new principle — this new proposition that no 
human being ever thought of three years ago — is brought forward, 
I combat it as having an evil tendency, if not an evil design. I 
combat it as having a tendency to dehumanize the negro — to talre 
away from him the right of ever striving to be a man. I combat it 
as being one of the thousand things constantly done in these days 
to prepare the public mind to make property, and nothing but 
property, of the negro in all the States in this Union. 

But there is a point that I wish, before leaving this part of the 
discussion, to ask attention to. I have read, and I repeat, the words 
of Henry Clay : 

I desire no concealment of my opinions in regard to the institution of 
slavery. I look upon it as a great evil, and deeply lament that we have de- 
rived it fi'om the parent government, and from oui* ancestors. I wish 
every slave in the United States was in the country of his ancestors. But 
here they are, and the question is, how can they best be dealt with ? If a 
state of nature existed, and we were about to lay the foundations of society, 
no man would be more strongly opposed than I should be, to incorporating 
the institution of slavery among its elements. 

The principle upon which I have insisted in this canvass, is in re- 
lation to laying the foundations of new societies. I have never 
sought to apply these principles to the old States for the purpose of 
abolishing slaver^^ in those States. It is nothing but a miserable 
perversion of what I have said, to assume that I have declared Mis- 
souri, or any other slave State, shall emancipate her slaves. I have 
proposed no such thing. But when Mr. Clay says that in laying the 
foundations of societies in our Territories where it does not exist, he 
would be opposed to the introduction of slavery as an element, I in- 
sist that we have his warrant — his license for insisting upon the ex- 
clusion of that element which he declared in such strong and emphatic 
language was most hateful to him. 

Judge Douglas has again referred to a Springfield speech in which 
I said, " A house divided against itself cannot stand." The judge has 
so often made the entire quotation from that speech that I can make 
it from memory. I used this language : 

We are now far into the fifth year since a pohcy was initiated with the 
avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to the slavery agi- 
tation. Under the operation of this policy, that agitation has not only not 
ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion it will not cease un- 
til a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against 
itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endm*e permanently 
half slave and half free. I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect 
it will cease to be divided. It will become aU one thing, or all the other. 
Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place 
it where the pubUc mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the covu-se of 
ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward tiU it shall become 
alike lawful in all the States — old as well as new. North as well as South. 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 503 

That extract, and the sentiments expressed in it, have been ex- 
tremely offensive to Judge Douglas. He has warred upon them as 
Satan wars upon the Bible. His perversions upon it are endless. 
Here now are my views upon it in brief. 

I said we were now far into the fifth year since a policy was 
initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an 
end to the slavery agitation. Is it not so 1 When that Nebraska bill 
was brought forward four years ago last January, was it not for the 
'' avowed object" of putting an end to the slavery agitation? We 
were to have no more agitation in Congress ; it was all to be ban- 
ished to the Territories. By the way, I will remark here that, as 
Judge Douglas is very fond of complimenting Mr. Crittenden in 
these days, Mr. Crittenden has said there was a falsehood in that 
whole business, for there was no slavery agitation at that time to 
allay. We were for a little while quiet on the troublesome thing, 
and that very allaying-plaster of Judge Douglas's stirred it up again. 
But was it not undertaken or initiated with the " confident promise" 
of putting an end to the slavery agitation ? Surely it was. In every 
speech you heard Judge Douglas make, until he got into this " im- 
broglio," as they call it, with the administration about the Lecompton 
constitution, every speech on that Nebraska bill was full of his felici- 
tations that we were just at the end of the slavery agitation. The 
last tip of the last joint of the old serpent's tail was just drawing out 
of view. But has it proved so? I have asserted that under that 
policy that agitation " has not only ceased, but has constantly aug- 
mented." When was there ever a greater agitation in Congress than 
last winter ? When was it as great in the country as to-day ? 

There was a collateral object in the introduction of that Nebraska 
policy which was to clothe the people of the Territories with a supe- 
rior degree of self-government, beyond what they had ever had before. 
The first object and the main one of conferring upon the people a 
higher degree of " self-government," is a question of fact to be de- 
termined by you in answer to a single question. Have you ever 
heard or known of a people anywhere on earth who had as little to 
do as, in the first instance of its use, the people of Kansas had with 
this same right of '' self-government"? In its main policy and in 
its collateral object, it has been nothing but a living, creeping lie 
from the time of its introduction till to-day. 

I have intimated that I thought the agitation would not cease 
until a crisis should have been reached and passed. I have stated 
in what way I thought it would be reached and passed. I have said 
that it might go one way or the other. We might, by arresting the 
further spread of it, and placing it where the fathers originally 
placed it, put it where the public mind should rest in the belief that 
it was in the course of ultimate extinction. Thus the agitation may 
cease. It may be pushed forward until it shall become alike lawful in 
all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South. I have said, 
and I repeat, my wish is that the further spread of it may be arrested, 
and that it may be placed where the public mind shall rest in the 
belief that it is in the course of idtimate extinction. I have ex- 
pressed that as my wish. I entertain the opinion, upon evidence 



504 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

sufficient to my raind, that the fathers of this government placed 
that institution where the public mind did rest in the belief that it 
was in the course of ultimate extinction. Let me ask why they made 
provision that the source of slavery — the African slave-trade — 
should be cut off at the end of twenty years? Why did they make 
provision that in all the new territory we owned at that time, slavery 
should be forever inhibited? Why stop its spread in one du*ection 
and cut off its source in another, if they did not look to its being 
placed in the course of ultimate extinction? 

Again, the institution of slavery is only mentioned in the Consti- 
tution of the United States two or three times, and in neither of 
these cases does the word ''slavery "or ''negro race" occur; but 
covert language is used each time, and for a purpose full of signifi- 
cance. What is the language in regard to the prohibition of the 
African slave-trade ? It runs in about this way : " The migration or 
importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall 
think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior 
to the year 1808." 

The next allusion in the Constitution to the question of slavery and 
the black race, is on the subject of the basis of representation, and 
there the language used is : " Representatives and du-ect taxes shall 
be apportioned among the several States which may be included 
within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which 
shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, 
including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding 
Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other persons." 

It says " persons," not slaves, not negroes ; but this " three fifths" 
can be applied to no other class among us than the negroes. 

Lastly, in the provision for the reclamation of fugitive slaves, it 
is said : '' No person held to service or labor in one State, under the 
laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of any law 
or regulation therein be discharged from such service or labor, but 
shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or 
labor may be due." There, again, there is no mention of the word 
"negro," or of slavery. In all three of these places, being the only 
allusion to slavery in the instrument, covert language is used. Lan- 
guage is used not suggesting that slavery existed or that tlie black 
race were among us. And I understand the contemporaneous history 
of those times to be that covert language was used with a purpose, 
and that purpose was that in our Constitution, which it was hoped, 
and is still hoped, will endure forever, — when it should be read by 
intelligent and patriotic men, after the institution of slavery had 
passed from among us, — there should be nothing on the face of the 
great charter of liberty suggesting that such a thing as negTO slavery 
had ever existed among us. This is part of the evidence that the 
fathers of the government expected and intended the institution 
of slavery to come to an end. They expected and intended that it 
should be in the course of ultimate extinction. And when I say 
that I desire to see the further spread of it arrested, I only say I 
desire to see that done which the fathers have first done. When I say 
I desire to see it placed where the public mind will rest in the belief 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 505 

that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, I only say I desire to 
see it placed where they placed it. It is not true that om* fathers, as 
Judge Douglas assumes, made this government part slave and part 
free. Understand the sense in which he puts it. He assumes that 
slavery is a rightful thing within itself — was introduced by the 
framers of the Constitution. The exact truth is that they found the 
institution existing among us, and they left it as they found it. But 
in making the government they left this institution with many clear 
marks of disapprobation upon it. They found slavery among them, 
and they left it among them because of the difficulty — the absolute 
impossibility — of its immediate removal. And when Judge Douglas 
asks me why we cannot let it remain part slave and part free, as the 
fathers of the government made it, he asks a question based upon 
an assumption which is itself a falsehood; and I turn upon him 
and ask him the question, when the pohcy that the fathers of the 
government had adopted in relation to this element among us was 
the best policy in the world, — the only wise policy, the only policy 
that we can ever safely continue upon, that will ever give us peace^ 
unless this dangerous element masters us all and becomes a national 
institution, — I turn upon him and ask him why he could not leave 
it alone, I turn and ask him why he was driven to the necessity of 
introducing a new policy in regard to it. He has himself said he 
introduced a new policy. He said so in his speech on the 22d of 
March of the present year, 1858. I ask him why he could not let it 
remain where our fathers placed it. I ask, too, of Judge Douglas 
and his friends, why we shall not again place this institution upon 
the basis on which the fathers left it? I ask you, when he infers 
that I am in favor of setting the fi'ee and the slave States at war, 
when the institution was placed in that attitude by those who made 
the Constitution, did they make any war 1 K we had no war out of 
it when thus placed, wherein is the ground of belief that we shall 
have war out of it if we return to that policy ? Have we had any 
peace upon this matter springing from any other basis? I maintain 
that we have not. I have proposed nothing more than a return to 
the policy of the fathers. 

I confess, when I propose a certain measure of policy, it is not 
enough for me that I do not intend anything evil in the result, but 
it is incumbent on me to show that it has not a tendency to that 
result. I have met Judge Douglas in that point of view. I have 
not only made the declaration that I do not mean to produce a con- 
flict between the States, but I have tried to show by fair reasoning, 
and I think I have shown to the minds of fair men. that I propose 
nothing but what has a most peaceful tendency. The quotation 
that I happened to make in that Springfield speech, that "a house 
divided against itself cannot stand," and which has proved so offen- 
sive to the judge, was part and parcel of the same thing. He tries 
to show that variety in the domestic institutions of the different 
States is necessary and indispensable. I do not dispute it. I have 
no controversy with Judge Douglas about that. I shall very readily 
agree with him that it would be foolish for us to insist upon hav- 
ing a cranberry law here, in Illinois, where we have no cranberries, 



506 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

because they have a cranberry law in Indiana, where they have 
cranberries. I should insist that it would be exceedingly wrong in 
us to deny to Virginia the right to enact oyster laws, where they 
have oysters, because we want no such laws here. I understand, 
I hope, quite as well as Judge Douglas, or anybody else, that the 
variety in the soil and climate and face of the country, and con- 
sequent variety in the industrial pursuits and productions of a 
country, require systems of laws conforming to this variety in the 
natural features of the country. I understand quite as well as 
Judge Douglas, that if we here raise a barrel of flour more than 
we want, and the Louisianians raise a barrel of sugar more than 
they want, it is of mutual advantage to exchange. That produces 
commerce, brings us together, and makes us better friends. We 
like one another the more for it. And I understand as well as 
Judge Douglas, or anybody else, that these mutual accommodations 
are the cements which bind together the different parts of this 
Union; that instead of being a thing to ''divide the house" — fig- 
uratively expressing the Union — they tend to sustain it; they are 
the props of the house tending always to hold it up. 

But when I have admitted all this, I ask if there is any parallel 
between these things and this institution of slavery ? I do not see 
that there is any parallel at all between them. Consider it. When 
have we had any difficulty or quarrel amongst ourselves about the 
cranberry laws of Indiana, or the oyster laws of Virginia, or the 
pine-lumber laws of Maine, or the fact that Louisiana produces 
sugar, and Illinois flour? When have we had any quarrels over 
these things ? When have we had perfect peace in regard to this 
thing which I say is an element of discord in this Union ? We 
have sometimes had peace, but when was it? It was when the in- 
stitution of slavery remained quiet where it was. We have had 
difficulty and turmoil whenever it has made a struggle to spread 
itself where it was not. I ask, then, if experience does not speak 
in thunder-tones, telling us that the policy which has given peace to 
the country heretofore, being returned to, gives the greatest prom- 
ise of peace again. You may say, and Judge Douglas has intimated 
the same thing, that all this difficulty in regard to the institution 
of slavery is the mere agitation of office-seekers and ambitious 
northern politicians. He thinks we want to get " his place," I sup- 
pose. I agree that there are office-seekers amongst us. The Bible 
says somewhere that we are desperately selfish. I think we would 
have discovered that fact without the Bible. I do not claim that I 
am any less so than the average of men, but I do claim that I am 
not more selfish than Judge Douglas. 

But is it true that all the difficulty and agitation we have in re- 
gard to this institution of slavery springs from office-seeking — from 
the mere ambition of politicians ? Is that the truth ? How many 
times have we had d&ager from this question ? Go back to the day 
of the Missouri Compromise. Go back to the nullification question, 
at the bottom of which lay this same slavery question. Go back to 
the time of the annexation of Texas. Go back to the troubles that 
led to the compromise of 1850. You will find that every time, with 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 507 

the single exception of the nullification question, they sprang from 
an endeavor to spread this institution. There never was a party in 
the history of this country, and there probably never will be, of 
sufl&cient strength to disturb the general peace of the country. 
Parties themselves may be divided and quarrel on minor questions, 
yet it extends not beyond the parties themselves. But does not this 
question make a disturbance outside of political circles? Does it 
not enter into the churches and rend them asunder ? What divided 
the gi'eat Methodist Church into two parts. North and South? What 
has raised this constant disturbance in every Presbyterian general 
assembly that meets? What distui'bed the Unitarian Church in 
this very city two years ago? What has jarred and shaken the 
great American Tract Society recently — not yet splitting it, but 
sure to divide it in the end? Is it not this same mighty, deep- 
seated power that somehow operates on the minds of men, exciting 
and stirring them up in every avenue of society — in politics, in 
religion, in literature, in morals, in all the manifold relations of 
life? Is this the work of politicians? Is that irresistible power, 
which for fifty years has shaken the government and agitated the 
people, to be stilled and subdued by pretending that it is an exceed- 
ingly simple thing, and we ought not to talk about it? If you will 
get everybody else to stop talking about it, I assure you I will quit 
before they have half done so. But where is the philosophy or 
statesmanship which assumes that you can quiet that disturbing 
element in our society which has disturbed us for more than half a 
century, which has been the only serious danger that has threat- 
ened oiu' institutions — I say, where is the philosophy or the states- 
manship based on the assumption that we are to quit talking about 
it, and that the public mind is all at once to cease being agitated by 
it ? Yet this is the policy here in the North that Douglas is advo- 
cating — that we are to care nothing about it ! I ask you if it is not 
a false philosophy ? Is it not a false statesmanship that undertakes 
to build up a system of policy upon the basis of caring nothing 
about the very thing that everybody does care the most about — a 
thing which all experience has shown we care a very great deal 
about ? 

The judge alludes very often in the course of his remarks to the 
exclusive right which the States have to decide the whole thing for 
themselves. I agree with him very readily that the different States 
have that right. He is but fighting a man of straw when he assumes 
that I am contending against the right of the States to do as they 
please about it. Our controversy with him is in regard to the new 
Territories. We agi'ee that when the States come in as States they 
have the right and the power to do as they please. We have no power 
as citizens of the free States, or in our federal capacity as members of 
the Federal Union through the General Government, to disturb 
slavery in the States where it exists. We profess constantly that we 
have no more inclination than belief in the power of the government 
to disturb it; yet we are driven constantly to defend ourselves from 
the assumption that we are warring upon the rights of the States. 
What I insist upon is, that the new Territories shall be kept free from 



508 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

it while in the territorial condition. Judge Douglas assumes that 
we have no interest in them — that we have no right whatever to in- 
terfere. I think we have some interest. I think that as white men 
we have. Do we not wish for an outlet for our surplus population, 
if I may so express myself ? Do we not feel an interest in getting to 
that outlet with such institutions as we would like to have prevail 
there ? If you go to the Territory opposed to slaveiy, and another man 
comes upon the same ground with his slave, upon the assumption 
that the things are equal, it turns out that he has the equal right all 
his way, and you have no part of it your way. If he goes in and 
makes it a slave Territory, and by consequence a slave State, is it 
not time that those who desii'e to have it a free State were on equal 
ground ? Let me suggest it in a different way. How many Demo- 
crats are thereabout here ['^A thousand"] who have left slave States 
and come into the free State of Illinois to get rid of the institution 
of- slavery t [Another voice : '* A thousand and one."] I reckon there 
ai'e a thousand and one. I will ask you, if the policy you are now 
advocating had prevailed when this country was in a territorial con- 
dition, where would you have gone to get rid of it? Where would 
you have found your free State or Territory to go to ? And when 
hereafter, for any cause, the people in this place shall desire to find 
new homes, if they wish to be rid of the institution, where will they 
find the place to go to? 

Now, irrespective of the moral aspect of this question as to whether 
there is a right or wrong in enslaving a negro, I am still in favor of 
our new Territories being in such a condition that white men may 
find a home — may find some spot where they can better their condi- 
tion — where they can settle upon new soil, and better their condition 
in life. I am in favor of this not merely (I must say it here as I 
have elsewhere) for our own people who are born amongst us, but 
as an outlet for free white people everywhere, the world over — in 
which Hans, and Baptiste, and Patrick, and all other men from all 
the world, may find new homes and better then* condition in life. 

I have stated upon former occasions, and I may as well state again, 
what I understand to be the real issue of this controversy between 
Judge Douglas and myself. On the point of my wanting to make 
war between the free and the slave States, there has been no issue 
between us. So, too, when he assumes that I am in favor of intro- 
ducing a perfect social and political equality between the white and 
black races. These are false issues, upon which Judge Douglas has 
tried to force the controversy. There is no foundation in truth for 
the charge that I maintain either of these propositions. The real 
issue in this controversy — the one pressing upon every mind — is the 
sentiment on the part of one class that looks upon the institution of 
slavery as a wrong, and of another class that does not look upon it 
as a wrong. The sentiment that contemplates the institution of 
slavery in this country as a wrong is the sentiment of the Repubh- 
can party. It is the sentiment around which all their actions, all 
their arguments, circle ; from which all their propositions radiate. 
They look upon it as being a moral, social, and political wrong; and 
while they contemplate it as such, they nevertheless have due regard 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 509 

for its actual existence among ns, and the difficulties of getting rid 
of it in an}^ satisfactory way, and to all the constitutional obligations 
thrown about it. Yet having a due regard for these, they desire a 
policy in regard to it that looks to its not creating any more danger. 
They insist that it, as far as may be, be treated as a wrong, and one 
of the methods of treating it as a wi'ong is to make provision that it 
shall grow no larger. They also desire a policy that looks to a 
peaceful end of slavery some time, as being a wrong. These are the 
views they entertain in regard to it, as I understand them ; and all 
their sentiments, all their arguments and propositions, are brought 
within this range. I have said, and I repeat it here, that if there be 
a man amongst us who does not think that the institution of slavery 
is wrong in any one of the aspects of which I have spoken, he is mis- 
placed, and ought not to be with us. And if there be a man amongst 
us who is so impatient of it as a wrong as to disregard its actual 
presence among us and the difficulty of getting rid of it suddenly in 
a satisfactory way, and to disregard the constitutional obligations 
thrown about it, that man is misplaced if he is on our platform. 
We disclaim sj^mpathy with him in practical action. He is not 
placed properly with us. 

On this subject of treating it as a wrong, and limiting its spread, 
let me say a word. Has anything ever threatened the existence of 
this Union save and except this very institution of slavery? What 
is it that we hold most dear amongst us? Our own liberty and pros- 
perity. What has ever threatened our liberty and prosperity save 
and except this institution of slavery? If this is true, how do you 
propose to improve the condition of things by enlarging slavery — 
by spreading it out and making it bigger? You may have a wen or 
cancer upon your person, and not be able to cut it out lest you bleed 
to death; but surely it is no way to cure it, to engraft it and spread 
it over your whole body. That is no proper way of treating what 
you regard as a wrong. You see this peaceful way of dealing Avith it 
as a wrong — restricting the spread of it, and not allowing it to go 
into new countries where it has not already existed. That is the 
peaceful way, the old-fashioned way, the way in which the fathers 
themselves set us the example. 

On the other hand, I have said there is a sentiment which treats 
it as not being wrong. That is the Democratic sentiment of this 
day. I do not mean to say that every man who stands within that 
range positively asserts that it is right. That class will include all 
who positively assert that it is right, and all who, like Judge Douglas, 
treat it as indifferent, and do not say it is either right or wrong. 
These two classes of men fall within the general class of those who 
do not look upon it as a wrong. And if there be among you any- 
body who supposes tliat he, as a Democrat, can consider himself " as 
much opposed to slavery as anybody," I would Uke to reason with 
him. You never treat it as a wrong. Wliat other thing that you 
consider as a wrong, do you deal with as you deal with that? Per- 
haps you say it is wrong, but your leader never does, and j^ou 
quarrel with anybody who says it is wrong. Although you pretend 
to say so yourself, you can find no fit place to deal with it as a wrong. 



510 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

You must not say anything about it in the free States, because it is 
not here. You must not say anj'^thing about it in the slave States, 
because it is there. You must not say anything about it in the 
pulpit, because that is religion, and has nothing to do with it. You 
must not say anything about it in politics, because that will disturb 
the security of " my place." There is no place to talk about it as 
being a wrong, although you say yourself it is a wrong. But finallj- 
you will screw yourself up to the belief that if the people of the 
slave States should adopt a system of gradual emancipation on the 
slavery question, you would be in favor of it. You would be in 
favor of it ! You say that is getting it in the right place, and you 
would be glad to see it succeed. But you are deceiving yourself. 
You all know that Frank Blair and Gratz Brown, down there in St. 
Louis, undertook to introduce that system in Missouri. They fought 
as valiantly as they could for the system of gradual emancipation 
which you pretend you would be glad to see succeed. Now I will 
bring you to the test. After a hard fight, they were beaten ; and 
when the news came over here, you threw up your hats and hurrahed 
for Democracy. More than that, take all the argument made in 
favor of the system you have proposed, and it carefully excludes 
the idea that there is anything wrong in the institution of slavery. 
The arguments to sustain that policy carefully exclude it. Even 
here to-day you heard Judge Douglas quarrel with me because I 
uttered a wish that it might some time come to an end. Although 
Henry Clay could say he wished every slave in the United States 
was in the country of his ancestors, I am denounced by those pre- 
tending to respect Henry Clay, for uttering a wish that it might 
some time, in some peaceful wa}^, come to an end. 

The Democratic policy in regard to that institution wdll not 
tolerate the merest breath, the slightest hint, of the least degree of 
wrong about it. Try it by some of Judge Douglas's arguments. 
He says he "don't care whether it is voted up or voted down" in 
the Territories. I do not care myself, in dealing with that expres- 
sion, whether it is intended to be expressive of his indi^ddual senti- 
ments on the subject, or only of the national policy he desires to 
have established. It is alike valuable for mv purpose. Any man 
can say that who does not see anything wi'ong in slavery, but no man 
can logically say it who does see a wrong in it ; because no man can 
logically say he don't cai'o whether a wrong is voted up or voted 
down. He may say he don't care whether an indifferent thing is 
voted up or down, but he must logically have a choice between a 
right thing and a wrong thing. He contends that whatever com- 
munity wants slaves has a right to have them. So they have if it is 
not a wrong. But if it is a wrong, he cannot say people have a right 
to do wrong. He says that, upon the score of equality, slaves should 
be allowed to go into a new Territory like other property. This is 
strictly logical if there is no difference between it and other pro- 

f)erty. If it and other property are equal, his argument is entirely 
ogical. But if you insist that one is wroug and the other right, 
there is no use to institute a comparison between right and wrong. 
You may turn over everything in the Democratic policy from begin- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 511 

ning to end, whetlier iu the shape it takes on the statute-book, in 
the shape it takes in the Dred Scott decision, in the shape it takes 
in conversation, or the shape it takes in short maxim-like arguments 
— it everywhere carefully excludes the idea that there is anything 
wrong in it. 

That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this 
country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall 
be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles 
— right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two 
principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; 
and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right 
of humanity, and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same 
principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit 
that says, "You toil and work and earn bread, and I '11 eat it." No 
matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king 
who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit 
of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving 
another race, it is the same tyrannical principle. I was glad to 
express my gratitude at Quincy, and I reexpress it here to Judge 
Douglas — that he looks to no end of the institution of slavery. 
That will help the people to see where the struggle really is. It will 
hereafter place with us all men who really do wish the wrong may 
have an end. And whenever we can get rid of the fog which ob- 
scures the real question, — when we can get Judge Douglas and his 
friends to avow a policy looking to its perpetuation, — we can get out 
from among them that class of men and bring them to the side of 
those who treat it as a wrong. Then there will soon be an end of it, 
and that end will be its " ultimate extinction." Whenever the issue can 
be distinctl}'' made, and all extraneous matter thrown out, so that men 
can fairly see the real difference between the parties, this controversy 
will soon be settled, and it will be done peaceably too. There will 
be no war, no violence. It will be placed again where the wisest and 
best men of the world placed it. Brooks of South Carolina once 
declared that when this Constitution was framed, its framers did not 
look to the institution existing until this day. When he said this, I 
think he stated a fact that is fully borne out by the history of the 
times. But he also said they were better and wiser men than the 
men of these days; yet the men of these days had experience which 
they had not, and by the invention of the cotton-g-in it became a 
necessity in this country that slavery should be perpetual. I now 
say that, willingly or unwillingly, purposely or without purpose, 
Judge Douglas has been the most prominent instrimient in chang- 
ing the position of the institution of slavery, — which the fathers of 
the government expected to come to an end ere this, — and putting 
it upon Brooks's cotton-gin basis — placing it where he openly con- 
fesses he has no desire there shall ever be an end of it. 

I understand I have ten minutes yet. I will employ it in saying 
something about this argument Judge Douglas uses, while he sus- 
tains the Dred Scott decision, that the people of the Territories can 
still somehow exclude slavery. The first thing I ask attention to is 
the fact that Judge Douglas constantly said, before the decision, 



512 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

that whether they could or not, was a question for the Supreme 
Court. But after the court has made the decision, he virtually says 
it is not a question for the Supreme Court^ but for the people. 
And how is it he tells us they can exclude it? He says it needs 
'' police regulations," and that admits of " unfriendly legislation." 
Although it is a right established by the Constitution of the United 
States to take a slave into a Territory of the United States and 
hold him as property, yet unless the territorial legislature will give 
friendl}' legislation, and, more especially, if they adopt unfriendly 
legislation, they can practically exclude him. Now, without meeting 
this proposition as a matter of fact, I pass to consider the real con- 
stitutional obligation. Let me take the gentleman who looks me in 
the face before me, and let us suppose that he is a member of the 
territorial legislature. The first thing he will do will be to swear 
that he will support the Constitution of the United States. His 
neighbor by his side in the Territory has slaves and needs ter- 
ritorial legislation to enable him to enjoy that constitutional right. 
Can he withhold the legislation which his neighbor needs for the 
enjoyment of a right which is fixed in his favor in the Constitution 
of the United States which he has sworn to support? Can he with- 
hold it without violating his oath? And more especially, can he pass 
unfriendly legislation to violate his oath? Why, this is a monstrous 
sort of talk about the Constitution of the United States ! There has 
never been as outlandish or lawless a doctrine from the mouth of 
any respectable man on earth. I do not believe it is a constitutional 
right to hold slaves in a Territory of the United States. I believe 
the decision was improperly made, and I go for reversing it. Judge 
Douglas is furious against those who go for reversing a decision. 
But he is for legislating it out of all force while the law itself stands. 
I repeat that there has never been so monstrous a doctrine uttered 
from the mouth of a respectable man. 

I suppose most of us (I know it of myself) believe that the people 
of the Southern States are entitled to a congressional fugitive-slave 
law ; that is a right fixed in the Constitution. But it cannot be 
made available to them without congressional legislation. In the 
judge's language, it is a "barren right" which needs legislation 
before it can become efficient and valuable to the persons to whom 
it is guaranteed. And, as the right is constitutional, I agree that 
the legislation shall be granted to it. Not that we like the insti- 
tution of slavery; we profess to have no taste for running and 
catching negroes — at least, I profess no taste for that job at all. 
Why then do I yield support to a fugitive-slave law ? Because I do 
not understand that the Constitution, which guarantees that right, 
can be supported without it. And if I believed that the right to 
hold a slave in a Territory was equally fixed in the Constitution 
with the right to reclaim fugitives, I should be bound to give it the 
legislation necessary to support it. I say that no man can denj^ his 
obligation to give the necessary legislation to support slavery in a 
Territory, who believes it is a constitutional right to have it there. 
No man can, who does not give the Abolitionists an argument to 
deny the obligation enjoined by the Constitution to enact a fugitive- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 513 

slave law. Try it uow. It is the strongest Abolition argument ever 
made. I say, if that Dred Scott decision is correct, then the right 
to hold slaves in a Territory is equally a constitutional right with 
the right of a slaveholder to have his runaway returned. No one 
can show the distinction between them. The one is express, so that 
we cannot deny it; the other is construed to be in the Constitution, 
so that he who believes the decision to be correct believes in the 
right. And the man who argues that by unfriendly legislation, in 
spite of that constitutional right, slavery may be driven from the 
Territories, cannot avoid furnishing an argument by which Aboli- 
tionists may deny the obligation to return fugitives, and claim the 
power to pass laws unfriendly to the right of the slaveholder to 
reclaim his fugitive. I do not know how such an argument may 
strike a popular assembly like this, but I defy anybody to go before 
a body of men whose minds are educated to estimating evidence and 
reasoning, and show that there is an iota of difference between the 
constitutional right to reclaim a fugitive, and the constitutional 
right to hold a slave, in a Territory, provided this Dred Scott deci- 
sion is correct. I defy any man to make an argument that will 
justify unfriendly legislation to deprive a slaveholder of his right 
to hold his slave in a Territory, that will not equall}^, in all its 
length, breadth, and thickness, furnish an argument for nullifying 
the fugitive-slave law. Why, there is not such an Abolitionist in 
the nation as Douglas, after all. 



Mr. Douglas's Eejoinder in the Alton Joint Debate. 

Mr. Lincoln has concluded his remarks by saying that there is not 
such an Abolitionist as I am in all America. If he could make the 
Abolitionists of Illinois believe that, he would not have much show 
for the Senate. Let him make the Abolitionists believe the truth of 
that statement, and his political back is broken. 

His first criticism upon me is the expression of his hope that the 
war of the administration will be prosecuted against me and the 
Democratic party of this State with vigor. He wants that war 
prosecuted with vigor; I have no doubt of it. His hopes of success, 
and the hopes of his party, depend solely upon it. They have no 
chance of destroying the Democracy of this State except by the aid 
of federal patronage. He has all the federal office-holders here as 
his allies, running separate tickets against the Democracy to divide 
the party, although the leaders all intend to vote directly the Aboli- 
tion ticket, and only leave the greenhorns to vote this separate ticket 
who refuse to go into the Abolition camp. There is something really 
refreshing in the thought that Mr. Lincoln is in favor of prosecuting 
one war vigorously. It is the first war I ever knew him to be in favor 
of prosecuting. It is the first war that I ever knew him to believe to 
be just or constitutional. When the Mexican war was being waged, 
and the American army was surrounded by the enemy in Mexico, he 
thought the war was unconstitutional, unnecessary, and unjust. He 
thought it was not commenced on the right spot. 
Vol. I.— 33. 



514 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

"When I made an incidental allusion of that kind in the joint dis- 
cussion over at Charleston, some weeks ago, Lincoln, in replying, 
said that I, Douglas, had charged him with voting against supplies 
for the Mexican war, and then he reared up, full length, and swore 
that he never voted against the supplies, — that it was a slander, — 
and caught hold of Ficklin, who sat on the stand, and said, " Here, 
Ficklin, tell the people that it is a lie." Well, Ficklin, who had 
served in Congress with liim, stood up and told them all he recol- 
lected about it. It was that when George Ashmun, of Massachusetts, 
brought forward a resolution declaring the war unconstitutional, 
unnecessary, and unjust, Lincoln had voted for it. " Yes," said Lin- 
coln, " I did." Thus he confessed that he voted that the war was 
wrong, that oui* country was in the wrong, and consequently that 
the Mexicans were in the right ; but charged that I had slandered 
him by saying that he voted against the supplies. I never charged 
him with voting against the supplies in my life, because I knew that 
he was not in Congress when they were voted. The war was com- 
menced on the 13th day of May, 1846, and on that day we appro- 
priated in Congress ten millions of dollars and fifty thousand men to 
prosecute it. During the same session we voted more men and more 
money, and at the next session we voted more men and more money, 
so that by the time Mr. Lincoln entered Congress we had enough 
men and enough money to carry on the war, and had no occasion to 
vote for any more. When he got into the House, being opposed to 
the war, and not being able to stop the supplies, because they had all 
gone forward, all he could do was to follow the lead of Corwin, and 
prove that the war was not begun on the right spot, and that it was 
unconstitutional, unnecessary, and wron g. Remember, too, that this 
he did after the war had been begun. It is one thing to be opposed 
to the declaration of a war, another and very different thing to take 
sides with the enemy against your own country after the war has 
been commenced. Our army was in Mexico at the time, many battles 
had been fought ; our citizens, who were defending the honor of their 
country's flag, were surrounded by the daggers, the guns, and the 
poison of the enemy. Then it was that Corwin made his speech in 
which he declared that the American soldiers ought to be welcomed 
by the Mexicans with bloody hands and hospitable graves ; then it 
was that Ashmun and Lincoln voted in the House of Representa- 
tives that the war was unconstitutional and unjust; and Ashmun's 
resolution, Corwin's speech, and Lincoln's vote were sent to Mexico 
and read at the head of the Mexican army, to prove to them that 
there was a Mexican party in the Congress of the United States who 
were doing all in their power to aid them. That a man who takes 
sides with the common enemy against his own country in time of 
war should rejoice in a war being made on me now, is very natural. 
And, in my opinion, no other kind of a man would rejoice in it. 

Mr. Lincoln has told you a great deal to-day about his being an 
old-line Clay Whig. Bear in mind that there are a great many old 
Clay Whigs down in this region. It is more agreeable, therefore, 
for him to talk about the old Clay Whig party than it is for him to 
talk Abolitionism. We did not hear much about the old Clay Whig 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 515 

party up in the Abolition districts. How much of an old-line Henry 
Clay Whig was he? Have you read General Singleton's speech at 
JacKsonville? You know that General Singleton was, for twenty- 
five years, the confidential friend of Henry Clay in Illinois, and he 
testified that in 1847, when the constitutional convention of this 
State was in session, the Whig members were invited to a Whig 
caucus at the house of Mr, Lincoln's brother-in-law, where Mr. 
Lincoln proposed to throw Henry Clay overboard and take up Gen- 
eral Taylor in his place, giving, as his reason, that if the Whigs did 
not take up General Taylor, the Democrats would. Singleton testi- 
fies that Lincoln, in that speech, urged, as another reason for throw- 
ing Henry Clay overboard, that the Whigs had fought long enough 
for principle, and ought to begin to fight for success. Singleton 
also testifies that Lincoln's speech did have the effect of cutting 
Clay's throat, and that he (Singleton) and others withdrew from the 
caucus in indignation. He further states that when thev got to 
Philadelphia to attend the national convention of the Whig party, 
that Lincoln was there, the bitter and deadly enemy of Clay, and 
that he tried to keep him (Singleton) out of the convention because 
he insisted on voting for Clay, and Lincoln was determined to have 
Taylor. Singleton says that Lincoln rejoiced with very great joy 
when he found the mangled remains of the murdered Whig states- 
man lying cold before him. Now Mr. Lincoln tells you that he is 
an old-line Clay Whig! General Singleton testifies to the facts I 
have narrated, in a public speech which has been printed and cir- 
culated broadcast over the State for weeks, yet not a lisp have we 
heard from Mr. Lincoln on the subject, except that he is an old 
Clay Whig. 

What part of Henry Clay's policy did Lincoln ever advocate ? He 
was in Congress in 1848-49, when the Wilmot proviso warfare dis- 
turbed the peace and harmony of the country, until it shook the 
foundation of the republic from its center to its circumference. It 
was that agitation that brought Cla}^ forth from his retirement at 
Ashland again to occupy his seat in the Senate of the United States, 
to see if he could not, by his great wisdom and experience, and the 
renown of his name, do something to restore peace and quiet to a 
disturbed country. Who got up that sectional strife that Clay had 
to be called upon to quell ? I have heard Lincoln boast that he voted 
forty-two times for the Wilmot proviso, and that he would have 
voted as many times more if he could. Lincoln is the man, in con- 
nection with Seward, Chase, Giddings, and other Abolitionists, who 
got up that strife that I helped Clay to put down. Henry Clay came 
back to the Senate in 1849, and saw that he must do something to 
restore peace to the country. The Union Whigs and the Union 
Democrats welcomed him the moment he arrived, as the man for the 
occasion. We believed that he, of all men on earth, had been pre- 
served by divine providence to guide us out of our difficulties, and 
we Democrats rallied under Clay then, as you Whigs in nullification 
times rallied under the banner of old Jackson, forgetting party when 
the oountry was in danger, in order that we might have a country 
first and parties afterward. 



516 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Aud this reminds me that Mr. Lincoln told you that the slavery ques- 
tion was the only thing that ever disturbed the peace aud harmony 
of the Union. Did not nullification once raise its head and disturb 
the peace of this Union in 1832? Was that the slavery question, Mr. 
Lincoln? Did not disunion raise its monster head during the last 
war with Great Britain? Was that the slavery question, Mr. Lin- 
coln? The peace of this country has been disturbed three times, 
once during the war with Great Britain, once on the tariff question, 
and once on the slavery question. His argument, therefore, that 
slavery is the only question that has ever created dissension in the 
Union falls to the ground. It is true that agitators are enabled now 
to use this slavery question for the purpose of sectional strife. He 
admits that, in regard to all things else, the principle that I advocate, 
making each State and Territory free to decide for itself, ought to 
prevail. He instances the cranberry laws, and the oyster laws, aud 
he might have gone through the whole list with the same effect. I 
say that all these laws are local and domestic, and that local and do- 
mestic concerns should be left to each State and Territory to manage 
for itself. If agitators would acquiesce in that principle, there never 
would be any danger to the peace and harmony of the Union. 

Mr. Lincoln tries to avoid the main issue by attacking the truth 
of ray proposition, that our fathers made this government di\aded 
into free and slave States, recognizing the right of each to decide 
all its local questions for itself. Did they not thus make it ? It is 
true that they did not establish slavery in any of the States, or abol- 
ish it in anj^ of them; but finding thirteen States, twelve of which 
were slave and one free, they agreed to form a government uniting 
them together, as they stood, divided into free and slave States, and 
to guarantee forever to each State the right to do as it pleased on 
the slavery question. Having thus made the government, and con- 
ferred this right upon each State forever, I assert that this govern- 
ment can exist as they made it, divided into free and slave States, 
if any one State chooses to retain slavery. He says that he looks 
forward to a time when slavery shall be abolished everj^where. I 
look forward to the time when each State shall be allowed to do 
as it pleases. If it chooses to keep slavery forever, it is not my 
business, but its own ; if it chooses to abolish slavery, it is its own 
business, not mine. I care more for the great principle of self- 
government, the right of the people to rule, than I do for all the 
negroes in Christendom. I would not endanger the perpetuity of 
this Union; I would not blot out the great inalienable rights of the 
white men for all the negi'oes that ever existed. Hence, I say, let 
us maintain this government on the principles on which our fathers 
made it, recognizing the right of each State to keep slavery as long 
as its people determine, or to abolish it when they please. But Mr. 
Lincoln says that when our fathers made this government they did 
not look forward to the state of things now existing, and therefore 
he thinks the doctrine was wrong ; and he quotes Brooks, of South 
CaroHna, to prove that our fathers then thought that probably 
slavery would be abolished by each State acting for itself before 
this time. Suppose they did ; suppose they did not foresee what 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 517 

has occurred — does that change the principles of our government? 
They did not probably foresee the telegraph that transmits intelli- 
gence by lightning; nor did they foresee the railroads that now 
form the bonds of union between the different States ; or the thou- 
sand mechanical inventions that have elevated mankind. But do 
these things change the principles of the government '? Our fathers, 
I say, made this government on the principle of the right of each 
State to do as it pleases in its own domestic affairs, subject to the 
Constitution, and allowed the people of each to apply to every new 
change of circumstances such remedy as they may see fit to improve 
their condition. This right they have for all time to come. 

Mr. Lincoln went on to tell you that he does not at all desire to 
interfere with slavery in the States where it exists, nor does his 
party. I expected him to say that down here. Let me ask him 
then how he expects to put slavery in the course of ultimate extinc- 
tion everywhere, if he does not intend to interfere with it in the 
States where it exists ? He says that he will prohibit it in all Ter- 
ritories, and the inference is, then, that unless they make free States 
out of them he will keep them out of the Union; for, mark you, he 
did not say whether or not he would vote to admit Kansas wdth 
slavery or not, as her people might apply (he forgot that, as usual); 
he did not say whether or not he was in favor of bringing the 
Territories now in existence into the Union on the principle of 
Clay's compromise measures on the slavery question. I told you 
that he would not. His idea is that he will prohibit slavery in all 
the Territories, and thus force them all to become free States, sur- 
rounding the slave States with a cordon of free States and hem- 
ming them in, keeping the slaves confined to their present limits 
whilst they go on multiplying until the soil on which they live will 
no longer feed them, and he will thus be able to put slavery in a 
course of ultimate extinction by starvation. He will extinguish 
slavery in the Southern States as the French general extinguished 
the Algerines when he smoked them out. He is going to extin- 
guish slavery by surrounding the slave States, hemming in the 
slaves, and starving them out of existence, as you smoke a fox out 
of his hole. He intends to do that in the name of humanity and 
Christianity, in order that we may get rid of the terrible crime and 
sin entailed upon our fathers of holding slaves. Mr. Lincoln makes 
out that line of policy, and appeals to the moral sense of justice 
and to the Christian feeling of the community to sustain him. He 
says that any man who holds to the contrary doctrine is in the po- 
sition of the king who claimed to govern by divine right. Let us 
examine for a moment and see what principle it was that over- 
threw the divine right of George III. to govern us. Did not these 
colonies rebel because the British parliament had no right to pass 
laws concerning our property and domestic and private institu- 
tions without our consent f We demanded that the British govern- 
ment should not pass such laws unless they gave us representation 
in the body passing them — and this the British government insist- 
ing on doing, we went to war, on the principle that the home 
government should not control and govern distant colonies without 



518 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

giving them a representation. Now Mr. Lincoln proposes to govern 
the Territories without giving them a representation, and calls on 
Congi'ess to pass laws controlling their property and domestic con- 
cerns without their consent and against their will. Thus he asserts 
for his party the identical principle asserted by George III. and the 
Tories of the Revolution. 

I ask you to look into these things, and then tell me whether the 
Democracy or the Abolitionists are right. I hold that the people of 
a Territory, like those of a State (I use the language of Mr. Buchanan 
in his letter of acceptance), have the right to decide for themselves 
whether slavery shall or shall not exist within their limits. The point 
upon which Chief Justice Taney expresses his opinion is simply this, 
that slaves, being property, stand on an equal footing with other 
propertj^, and consequently that the owner has the same right to carry 
that property into a Territory that he has any other, subject to the 
same conditions. Suppose that one of your merchants was to take 
fifty or one hundred thousand dollars' worth of liquors to Kansas. 
He has a right to go there under that decision, but when he gets 
there he finds the Maine liquor-law in force, and what can he do with 
his property after he gets it there? He cannot sell it, he cannot use 
it, it is subject to the local law, and that law is against him, and the 
best thing he can do with it is to bring it back into Missoui'i or Illi- 
nois and sell it. If you take negroes to Kansas, as Colonel Jefferson 
Davis said in his Bangor speech, from which I have quoted to-dav, 
you must take them there subject to the local law. If the people 
want the institution of slavery, they will protect and encourage it; 
but if they do not want it, they will withhold that protection, and the 
absence of local legislation protecting slavery excludes it as com- 
pletely as a positive prohibition. You slaveholders of Missouri 
might as well understand what you know practically, that you cannot 
carry slavery where the people do not want it. All you have a right 
to ask is that the people shall do as they please ; if they want slavery, 
let them have it; if they do not want it, allow them to refuse to 
encourage it. 

My friends, if, as I have said before, we wiU only live up to this 
great fundamental principle, there will be peace between the North 
and the South. Mr. Lincoln admits that under the Constitution, on 
all domestic questions except slavery, we ought not to interfere with 
the people of each State. What right have we to interfere with 
slavery any more than we have to interfere with any other question? 
He says that this slavery question is now the bone of contention. 
Why? Simply because agitators have combined in all the free States 
to make war upon it. Suppose the agitators in the States should 
combine in one half of the Union to make war upon the railroad sys- 
tem of the other half. They would thus be driven to the same sec- 
tional strife. Suppose one section makes war upon any other peculiar 
institution of the opposite section, and the same strrfe is produced. 
The only remedy and safety is that we shall stand by the Constitution 
as our fathers made it, obey the laws as they are passed, while they 
stand the proper test, and sustain the decisions of the Supreme Court 
and the constituted authorities. 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 519 

[October 15?] 1858. — Fragment. Opinion on Election Laws of 

Illinois. 

It is made a question whether, under our laws, a person offering 
to vote, and being challenged, and having taken the oath prescribed 
by the act of 1849, is then absolutely entitled to vote, or whether 
his oath may be disproved, and his vote thereon lawfully rejected. 
In Purple's Statutes, Volume I, all our existing election laws are 
brought together, commencing on page 514 and extending to page 
532. They consist of acts and parts of acts passed at different times. 
The true way of reading so much of the law as applies to the above 
question, is to first read (64) section x, including the form of the 
oath on page 528. Then turn back and read (19) section xix, on 
page 518. If it be said that the section last mentioned is not now 
m force, turn forward to (75) section xxi, on page 530, where it is 
expressly declared to be in force. 

The result is that when a person has taken the oath, his oath may 
still be proved to be false, and his vote thereupon rejected. It may 
be proved to be false by cross-examining the proposed voter himself, 
or by any other person, or competent testimony known to the gen- 
eral law of evidence. On page 532 is an extract of a Supreme Court 
decision on the very section xix, on page 518, in which, among other 
things, the court says: ''If such person takes the oath prescribed 
by law, the judges must receive his vote^ unless the oath be proved 
false." Something of a definition of residence is therein given. 

October 30, 1858. — Letter to E. Lusk. 

Springfield, October 30, 1858. 
Edward Lusk, Esq. 

Dear Sir: I understand the story is still being told and insisted 
upon that I have been a Know-nothing. I repeat what I stated in 
a public speech at Meredosia, that I am not, nor ever have been, con- 
nected with the party called the Know-nothing party, or party call- 
ing themselves the American party. Certainly no man of truth, and 
I believe no man of good character for truth, can be found to say on 
his own knowledge that I ever was connected with that party. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 

November 4, 1858. — Letter to J. J. Crittenden. 

Springfield, November 4, 1858. 
Hon. J. J. Crittenden. 

My dear Sir : Yours of the 27th was taken from the office by 
my law partner, and in the confusion consequent upon the recent 
election, was handed to me only this moment. I am sorry the allu- 
sion made in the "Missouri Republican" to the private correspon- 
dence between yourself and me has given you any pain. It gave me 
scarcely a thought, perhaps for the reason that, being away from 
home, I did not see it until only two days before the election. It 



520 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

never occurred to me to cast any blame upon you. I have been told 
that the correspondence has been alluded to in the "Missouri Repub- 
lican" several times; but I only saw one of the allusions made, in 
which it was stated, as I remember, that a gentleman of St. Louis 
had seen a copy of your letter to me. As I have given no copy, nor 
ever shown the original, of course I inferred he had seen it in your 
hands; but it did not occur to me to blame you for showing what 
you had written yourself. It was not said that the gentleman had 
seen a copy, or the original, of my letter to you. 

The emotions of defeat at the close of a struggle in which I felt 

more than a merely selfish interest, and to which defeat the use of 

your name contributed largely, are fresh upon me; but even in this 

mood I cannot for a moment suspect you of anything dishonorable. 

Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. 

November 15, 1858. — Letter to N. B. Judd. 

Springfield, November 15, 1858. 
Hon. N. B. Judd, 

3Iy dear Sir : I have the pleasure to inform you that I am con- 
valescent, and hoping these lines may find you in the same improv- 
ing state of health. Doubtless you have suspected for some time 
that I entertain a personal wish for a term in the United States 
Senate; and had the suspicion taken the shape of a direct charge, I 
think I could not have truthfully denied it. But let the past as 
nothing be. For the future, my view is that the fight must go on. 
The returns here are not yet completed ; but it is believed that 
Dougherty's vote will be slightly greater than Millei*'s majority over 
Tracy. We have some hundred and twenty thousand clear Repub- 
lican votes. That pile is worth keeping together. It will elect a 
State treasurer two years hence. 

In that day I shall fight in the ranks, but I shall be in no one's 
way for any of the places. I am especially for Trumbull's reelec- 
tion ; and, by the way, this brings me to the principal object of this 
letter. Can you not take your draft of an apportionment law, and 
carefully revise it till it shall be strictly and obviously just in aU par- 
ticulars, and then by an early and persistent effort get enough of the 
enemy's men to enable you to pass it "? I believe if you and Peck 
make a job of it, begin early, and work earnestly and quietly, you can 
succeed in it. Unless something be done, Trumbull is eventually 
beaten two years hence. Take this into serious consideration. 

Yours as ever, A. Lincoln. 

November 16, 1858. — Letter to N. B. Judd. 

Springfield, November 16, 1858. 
Hon. N. B. Judd. 

Dear Sir: Yours of the 15th is just received. I wrote you the 
same day. As to the pecuniary matter, I am willing to pay accord- 
ing to my ability ; but I am the poorest hand living to get others 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 521 

to pay. I have been on expenses so long without earning anything 
that I am absolutely without money now for even household purposes. 
Still, if you can put in two hundred and fifty dollars for me toward 
discharging the debt of the committee, I will allow it when you and 
I settle the private matter between us. This, with what I have 
already paid, and with an outstanding note of mine, will exceed my 
subscription of five hundred dollars. This, too, is exclusive of my 
ordinary expenses during the campaign, all of which being added to 
my loss of time and business, bears pretty heavily upon one no better 
off in [this] world's goods than I : but as I had the post of honor, it 
is not for me to be over nice. You are feeling badly, — "And this 
too shall pass away," never fear. Yours as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 

November 19, 1858. — Letter to H. Asbury. 

Springfield, November 19, 1858. 
Henry Asbury, Esq. 

Dear Sir : Yours of the 13th was received some days ago. The 
fight must go on. The cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered 
at the end of one or even one hundred defeats. Douglas had the 
ingenuity to be supported in the late contest both as the best means 
to break down and to uphold the slave interest. No ingenuity can 
keep these antagonistic elements in harmony long. Another explo- 
sion will soon come. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

November 19, 1858. — Letter to A. G. Henry. 

Springfield, Illinois, November 19, 1858. 
Dr. a. G. Henry. 

Mtf dear Sir : Yours of the 27th of September was received two 
days ago, I was at Oquawka, Henderson County, on the 9th of 
October; and I may then have seen Major A. N. Armstrong; but 
having nothing then to fix my attention, I do not remember such a 
man. I have concluded, as the best way of serving you, to inclose 
your letter to E. A. Paine, Esq., of Monmouth, 111., a reliable law- 
yer, asking him to do what you ask of me. If a suit is to be 
brought, he will correspond directly with you. 

You doubtless have seen ere this the result of the election here. 
Of course I wished, but I did not much expect, a better result. 
The popular vote of the State is with us ; so that the seat in the 

{Lower portion of page cut off.) 

whole canvass. On the contrary, John and George Weber, and 
several such old Democrats, were furiously for me. As a general 
rule, out of Sangamon as well as in it, much of the plain old De- 
mocracy is with us, while nearly all the old exclusive silk-stocking 
Whiggery is against us. I don't mean ueai'ly all the Old Whig party, 
but nearly aU of the nice exclusive sort. And why not? There 



522 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

has been nothing in politics since the Revolution so congenial to 
their nature as the present position of the great Democratic party. 
I am glad I made the late race. It gave me a hearing on the 
great and durable question of the age, which I could have had in 
no other way ; and though I now sink out of view, and shall be for- 
gotten, I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the 
cause of civil liberty long after I am gone. Mary joins me in send- 
ing our best wishes to Mrs. Henry and others of your family. 

November 25, 1858. — Letter to J. A. Matteson. 

Springfield, November 25, 1858. 
Hon. Joel A. Matteson. 

Dear Sir: Last summer, when a movement was made in court 
against your road, you engaged us to be on your side. It has so 
happened that, so far, we have performed no service in the case ; 
but we lost a cash fee offered us on the other side. Now, being hard 
run, we propose a little compromise. We will claim nothing for the 
matter just mentioned, if you will relieve us at once from the old 
matter at the Marine and Fire Insurance Company, and be greatly 
obliged to boot. Can you not do it? 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 

[February 22] 1859. — Lecture on " Discoveries, Inventions, and 
Improvements," delivered in Neighboring Towns in 1859, and 
before the springfield library association, springfield, 
Illinois, February 22, 1860. 

From autograph manuscript in the Lincoln Collection of Charles F. 
Oimther, Fsq., Chicago, Illinois. 

We have all heard of Young America. He is the most current 
youth of the age. Some think him conceited and arrogant ; but has 
he not reason to entertain a rather extensive opinion of himself? 
Is he not the inventor and owner of the present, and sole hope of 
the future ? Men and things, everywhere, are ministering unto him. 
Look at his apparel, and you shall see cotton fabrics from Man- 
chester and Lowell ; flax linen from Ireland ; wool cloth from Spain ; 
silk from France ; furs from the arctic region ; with a buffalo-robe 
from the Rocky Mountains, as a general outsider. At his table, be- 
sides plain bread and meat made at home, are sugar from Louisiana, 
coffee and fruits from the tropics, salt from Turk's Island, fish from 
Newfoundland, tea from China, and spices from the Indies. The 
whale of the Pacific furnishes his candle-light, he has a diamond ring 
from Brazil, a gold watch from California, and a Spanish cigar from 
Havana. He not only has a present supply of all these, and much 
more ; but thousands of hands are engaged in producing fresh sup- 
plies, and other thousands in bringing them to him. The iron horse 
IS panting and impatient to carry him everywhere in no time ; and the 
lightning stands ready harnessed to take and bring his tidings in a 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 523 

trifle less than no time. He owtis a large part of the world, by right 
of possessing it, and all the rest by right of wanting it, and intend- 
ing to have it. As Plato had for the immortality of the soul, so 
Young America has "a pleasing hope, a fond desire — a longing 
after " territory. He has a great passion — a perfect rage — for the 
'* new" ; particularly new men for office, and the new earth mentioned 
in the Revelations, in which, being no more sea, there must be about 
three times as much land as in the present. He is a great friend of 
humanity ; and his desire for land is not selfish, but merely an im- 
pulse to extend the area of freedom. He is very anxious to fight 
for the liberation of enslaved nations and colonies, provided, always, 
they have land, and have not any liking for his interference. As* to 
those who have no land, and would be glad of help from any quarter, 
he considers they can afford to wait a few hundred years longer. In 
knowledge he is particularly rich. He knows all that can possibly 
be known; inclines to believe in spiritual rappings, and is the un- 
questioned inventor of "■ Manifest Destiny." His horror is for all 
that is old, particularly " Old Fogy " ; and if there be anything old 
which he can endui'e, it is only old whisky and old tobacco. 

If the said Young America really is, as he claims to be, the owner 
of all present, it must be admitted that he has considerable advan- 
tage of Old Fogy. Take, for instance, the first of all fogies. Father 
Adam. There he stood, a very perfect physical man, as poets and 
painters inform us; but he must have been very ignorant, and sim- 
ple in his habits. He had had no sufficient time to learn much by 
observation, and he had no near neighbors to teach him anything. 
No part of his breakfast had been brought from the other side of 
the world ^ and it is quite probable he had no conception of the 
world having any other side. In all these things, it is very plain, he 
was no equal of Young America ; the most that can be said is, that 
according to his chance he may have been quite as much of a man 
as his very self-complacent descendant. Little as was what he 
knew, let the youngster discard all he has learned from others, and 
then show, if he can, any advantage on his side. In the way of land 
and live-stock, Adam was quite in the ascendant. He had dominion 
over all the earth, and all the living things upon and round about it. 
The land has been sadly divided out since; but never fret, Young 
America will re-annex it. 

The great difference between Young America and Old Fogy is the 
result of discoveries, inventions, and improvements. These, in turn, 
are the result of observation, reflection, and experiment. For in- 
stance, it is quite certain that ever since water has been boiled in 
covered vessels, men have seen the lids of the vessels rise and fall a 
little, with a sort of fluttering motion, by force of the steam ; but so 
long as this was not specially observed, and reflected, and experi- 
mented upon, it came to nothing. At length, however, after many 
thousand years, some man observes this long-known effect of hot 
water lifting a pot-lid, and begins a train of reflection upon it. He 
says, '^ Why, to be sure, the force that lifts the pot-lid will lift any- 
thing else which is no heavier than the pot-lid. And as man has 
much hard fighting to do, cannot this hot-water power be made to 



524 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

help him ? " He has become a little excited on the subject, and he 
fancies he hears a voice answering, "Try me." He does try it; and 
the observation, reflection, and trial give to the world the control of 
that tremendous and now well-known agent called steam-power. 
This is not the actual history in detail, but the general principle. 

But was this first inventor of the application of steam wiser or 
more ingenious than those who had gone before him? Not at all. 
Had he not learned much of those, he never would have succeeded, 
probably never would have thought of making the attempt. To be 
t'i'uitful in invention, it is indispensable to have a habit of observa- 
tion and reflection ; and this habit our steam friend acquired, no 
doubt, from those who, to him, were old fogies. But for the difference 
in habit of observation, why did Yankees almost instantly discover 
gold in California, which had been trodden upon and overlooked by 
Indians and Mexican greasers for centuries ? Gold-mines are not the 
only mines overlooked in the same way. There are more mines above 
the earth's surface than below it. All nature — the whole world, ma- 
terial, moral, and intellectual — is a mine; and in Adam's day it was a 
wholly unexplored mine. Now, it was the destined work of Adam's 
race to develop, by discoveries, inventions, and improvements, the 
hidden treasures of this mine. But Adam had nothing to turn his 
attention to the work. If he should do anything in the way of inven- 
tions, he had first to invent the art of invention, the instance, at least, 
if not the habit, of observation and reflection. As might be expected, 
he seems not to have been a very observing man at first; for it ap- 
pears he went about naked a considerable length of time before he 
ever noticed that obvious fact. But when he did observe it, the ob- 
servation was not lost upon him ; for it immediately led to the first of 
all inventions of which we have any direct account — the fig-leaf apron. 

The inclination to exchange thoughts with one another is proba- 
bly an original impulse of our nature. K I be in pain, I wish to let 
you know it, and to ask your sympathy and assistance; and mv 
pleasurable emotions also I wish to communicate to and share witn 
you. But to carry on such communications, some instrumentality 
is indispensable. Accordingly, speech — articulate sounds rattled 
off from the tongue — was used by our first parents, and even by 
Adam before the creation of Eve. He gave names to the animals 
while she was still a bone in his side ; and he broke out quite volu- 
bly when she first stood before him, the best present of his Maker. 
From this it would appear that speech was not an invention of man, 
but rather the direct gift of his Creator. But whether divine gift 
or invention, it is still plain that if a mode of communication had 
been left to invention, speech must have been the first, from the 
superior adaptation to the end of the organs of speech over every 
other means within the whole range of nature. Of the organs of 
speech the tongue is the principal ; and if we shall test it, we shall 
find the capacities of the tongue, in the utterance of articulate 
sounds, absolutely wonderful. You can count from one to one 
hundred quite distinctly in about forty seconds. In doing this two 
hundred and eighty-three distinct sounds or syllables are uttered, 
being seven to each second, and yet there should be enough differ- 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHA^I LINCOLN 525 

ence between every two to be easily recognized by the ear of the 
hearer. What other signs to represent things could possibly be 
produced so rapidly ? or, even if ready made, could be arranged so 
rapidly to express the sense ? Motions with the hands are no ade- 
quate substitute. Marks for the recognition of the eye, — wi'iting,— 
although a wonderful auxiliary of speech, is no worthy substi- 
tute for it. In addition to the more slow and laborious process of 
getting up a communication in writing, the materials — pen, ink, 
and paper — are not always at hand. But one always has his 
tongue with him, and the breath of his life is the ever-ready mate- 
rial with which it works. Speech, then, by enabling different indi- 
viduals to interchange thoughts, and thereby to combine their 
powers of observation and reflection, greatly facilitates useful dis- 
coveries and inventions. What one observes, and would himself 
infer nothing from, he teUs to another, and that other at once sees 
a valuable hint in it. A result is thus reached which neither alone 
would have arrived at. And this reminds me of what I passed un- 
noticed before, that the very first invention was a joint operation, 
Eve having shared with Adam the getting up of the apron. And, 
indeed, judging from the fact that sewing has come down to our 
times as " woman's work," it is very probable she took the leading 
part, — he, perhaps, doing no more than to stand by and thread the 
needle. That proceeding may be reckoned as the mother of all 
" sewing-societies," and the first and most perfect " World's Fail-," 
all inventions and all inventors then in the world being on the spot. 

But speech alone, valuable as it ever has been and is, has not ad- 
vanced the condition of the world much. This is abundantly evident 
when we look at the degraded condition of all those tribes of human 
creatures who have no considerable additional means of communi- 
cating thoughts. Writing, the art of communicating thoughts to 
the mind through the eye, is the great invention of the world. Great 
is the astonishing range of analysis and combination which neces- 
sarily underlies the most crude and general conception of it — great, 
very great, in enabling us to converse with the dead, the absent, and 
the unborn, at all distances of time and space ; and great, not only 
in its direct benefits, but greatest help to all other inventions. Sup- 
pose the art, with all conceptions of it, were this day lost to the world, 
how long, think you, would it be before Young America could get up 
the letter A with any adequate notion of using it to advantage? The 
precise period at which writing was invented is not known, but it 
certainly was as early as the time of Moses ; from which we may 
safely infer that its inventors were very old fogies. 

Webster, at the time of writing his dictionary, speaks of the Eng- 
lish language as then consisting of seventy or eighty thousand words. 
If so, the language in which the five books of Moses were written 
must at that time, now thirty-three or -four hundred years ago, have 
consisted of at least one quarter as many, or twenty thousand. Wiien 
we remember that words are sounds merely, we shall conclude tliat 
the idea of representing those sounds by marks, so that whoever 
should at any time after see the marks would understand what 
sounds they meant, was a bold and ingenious conception, not likely 



526 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

to occur to one man in a million in the run of a thousand years. 
And when it did occur, a distinct mark for each word, giving twenty 
thousand different marks first to be learned, and afterward to be re- 
membered, would follow as the second thought, and would present 
such a difficulty as would lead to the conclusion that the whole thing 
was impracticable. But the necessity still would exist ; and we may 
readily suppose that the idea was conceived, and lost^ and repro- 
duced, and dropped, and taken up again and again, until at last the 
thought of dividing sounds into parts, and making a mark, not to 
represent a whole sound, but only a part of one, and then of com- 
bining those marks, not very many in number, upon principles of 
permutation, so as to represent any and all of the whole twenty thou- 
sand words, and even any additional number, was somehow conceived 
and pushed into practice. This was the invention of phonetic writing, 
as distinguished from the clumsy picture-writing of some of the na- 
tions. That it was difficult of conception and execution is apparent, 
as well by the foregoing reflection, as the fact that so many tribes of 
men have come down from Adam's time to our own without ever 
having possessed it. Its utility may be conceived by the reflection 
that to it we owe everything which distinguishes us from savages. 
Take it from us, and the Bible, all history, all science, all govern- 
ment, all commerce, and nearly all social intercourse go with it. 

The great activity of the tongue in articulating sounds has already 
been mentioned, and it may be of some passing interest to notice 
the wonderful power of the eye in conveying ideas to the mind from 
writing. Take the same example of the numbers from one to one 
hundred written down, and you can run your eye over the list, and 
be assured that every number is in it, in about one half the time it 
would require to pronounce the words with the voice ; and not only 
so, but you can in the same short time determine whether every 
word is spelled correctly, by which it is evident that every separate 
letter, amounting to eight hundred and sixty-four, has been recog- 
nized and reported to the mind within the incredibly short space of 
twenty seconds, or one third of a minute. 

I have already intimated my opinion that in the world's history 
certain inventions and discoveries occurred of peculiar value, on 
account of their great efficiency in facilitating all other inventions 
and discoveries. Of these were the art of writing and of printing, 
the discovery of America, and the introduction of patent laws. The 
date of the first, as already stated, is unknown ; but it certainly was 
as much as fifteen hundred years before the Christian era ; the 
second — printing — came in 1436, or nearly three thousand years 
after the first. The others followed more rapidly — the discovery of 
America in 1492, and the first patent laws in 1624. Though not 
apposite to my present purpose, it is but justice to the fruitfulness 
of that period to mention two other important events — the Lu- 
theran Reformation in 1517, and, still earlier, the invention of 
negroes, or of the present mode of using them, in 1434, But to 
return to the consideration of printing, it is plain that it is but the 
other half, and in reality the better half, of writing; and that both 
together are but the assistants of speech in the communication of 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 527 

thoughts between man and man. "When man was possessed of 
speech alone, the chances of invention, discovery, and improvement 
were very limited; but by the introduction of each of these they 
were greatly multiplied. When writing was invented, any impor- 
tant observation likely to lead to a discovery had at least a chance of 
being written down, and consequently a little chance of never being 
forgotten, and of being seen and reflected upon by a much greater 
number of persons ; and thereby the chances of a valuable hint being 
caught proportionately augmented. By this means the observation 
of a single individual might lead to an important invention years, 
and even centuries, after he was dead. In one word, by means of 
writing, the seeds of invention were more permanently preserved 
and more widely sown. And yet for three thousand years during 
which printing remained undiscovered after writing was in use, it 
was only a small portion of the people who could write, or read writ- 
ing; and consequently the field of invention, though much extended, 
still continued very limited. At length printing came. It gave ten 
thousand copies of any written matter quite as cheaply as ten were 
given before; and consequently a thousand minds were brought into 
the field where there was but one before. This was a great gain — and 
history shows a great change corresponding to it — in point of time. 
I will venture to consider it the true termination of that period 
called "the dark ages." Discoveries, inventions, and improvements 
followed rapidly, and have been increasing their rapidity ever since. 
The effects could not come all at once. It required time to bring them 
out ; and they are still coming. The capacity to read could not be 
multiplied as fast as the means of reading. Spelling-books just 
began to go into the hands of the children, but the teachers were 
not very numerous or very competent, so that it is safe to infer they 
did not advance so speedily as they do nowadays. It is very prob- 
able — almost certain — that the great mass of men at that time 
were utterly unconscious that their condition or their minds were 
capable of improvement. They not only looked upon the educated 
few as superior beings, but they supposed themselves to be naturally 
incapable of rising to equality. To emancipate the mind from this 
false underestimate of itself is the great task which printing came 
into the world to perform. It is difiicult for us now and here to 
conceive how strong this slavery of the mind was, and how long 
it did of necessity take to break its shackles, and to get a habit of 
freedom of thought established. It is, in this connection, a curious 
fact that a new country is most favorable — almost necessary — 
to the emancipation of thought, and the consequent advancement 
of civilization and the arts. The human family originated, as is 
thought, somewhere in Asia, and have worked their way principally 
westward. Just now in civilization and the arts the people of Asia 
are entirely behind those of Europe; those of the east of Europe 
behind those of the west of it; while we, here, in America, think we 
discover, and invent, and improve faster than any of them. They 
may think this is arrogance ; but they cannot deny that Russia has 
called on us to show her how to build steamboats and railroads, 
while in the older parts of Asia they scarcely know that such things 



528 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

as steamboats and railroads exist. In anciently inhabited countries, 
the dust of ages — a real, downright old-fogyism — seems to settle 
upon aud smother the intellects and energies of man. It is in this 
view that I have mentioned the discovery of America as an event 
greatly favoring and facilitating useful discoveries and inventions. 
Next came the patent laws. These began in England in 1624, and 
in this country with the adoption of our Constitution. Before then 
any man [might] instantly use what another man had invented, so 
that the inventor had no special advantage from his invention. The 
patent system changed this, secured to the inventor for a limited 
time exclusive use of his inventions, and thereby added the fuel 
of interest to the fire of genius in the discovery and production of 
new and useful things. 

March 1, 1859. — Speech at Chicago on the Night 
OF the Municipal Election. 

I understand that you have to-day rallied around your principles, 
and they have again triumphed in the city of Chicago. I am ex- 
ceedingly happy to meet you under such cheering auspices on this 
occasion — the first on which I have appeared before an audience 
since the campaign of last year. It is unsuitable to enter into a 
lengthy discourse, as is quite apparent, at a moment like this. I 
shall therefore detain you only a very short while. 

It gives me peculiar pleasure to find an opportunity under such 
favorable circumstances to return my thanks for the gallant support 
that the Republicans of the city of Chicago and of the State gave to 
the cause in which we were all engaged in the late momentous 
struggle in Illinois. 

I remember in that canvass but one instance of dissatisfaction 
with my course, and I allude to that now not for the purpose of reviv- 
ing any matter of dispute or producing any unpleasant feeling, but 
in order to help to get rid of the point upon which that matter of 
disagreement or dissatisfaction arose. I understand that in some 
speeches I made I said something, or was supposed to have said 
something, that some very good people, as I really believe them to 
be, commented upon unfavorably, and said that rather than support 
one holding such sentiments as I had expressed, the real friends of 
liberty could afford to wait a while. I don't want to say anything 
that shall excite unkind feeling, and I mention this simply to sug- 
gest that I am afraid of the effect of that sort of argument. I do not 
doubt that it comes from good men, but I am afraid of the result upon 
organized action where great results are in view, if any of us allow 
ourselves to seek out minor or separate points, on which there may 
be difference of views as to policy and right, and let them keep us 
from uniting in action upon a great principle in a cause on which we 
all agree ; or are deluded into the belief that all can be brought to 
consider alike and agree upon every minor point before we unite and 
press forward in organization, asking the cooperation of all good 
men in that resistance to the extension of slavery upon which we all 
agree. I am afraid that such methods would result in keeping the 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 529 

friends of liberty waiting longer than we ought to. I say this for 
the purpose of suggesting that we consider whether it would not be 
better and wiser, so long as we all agree that this matter of slavery 
is a moral, political, and social wrong, and ought to be treated as a 
wrong, not to let anything minor or subsidiary' to that main princi- 
ple and purpose make us fail to cooperate. 

One other thing, — and that again I say in no spirit of unkindness. 
There was a question amongst Republicans all the time of the can- 
vass of last year, and it has not quite ceased yet, whether it was not 
the true and better polic}' for the Republicans to make it their chief 
object to reelect Judge Douglas to the Senate of the United States. 
Now, I differ with those who thought that the true policy, but I have 
never said an unkind word of any one entertaining that opinion. I 
believe most of them were as sincerely the friends of our cause as I 
claim to be myself; yet I thought they were mistaken, and I speak 
of this now for the purpose of justifying the course that I took and 
the course of those who supported me. In what I say now there is 
no unkindness, even toward Judge Douglas. I have believed that 
in the Republican situation in Illinois, if we, the Republicans of this 
State, had made Judge Douglas our candidate for the Senate of the 
United States last year, and had elected him, there would to-day be 
no Republican party in this Union. I believe that the principles 
around which we have rallied and organized that party would live ; 
they will live under all circumstances, while we will die. They would 
reproduce another party in the f utiu-e. But in the mean time all the 
labor that has been done to build up the present Republican party 
would be entirely lost, and perhaps twenty years of time, before we 
would again have formed around that principle as solid, extensive, 
and formidable an organization as we have, standing shoulder to 
shoulder, to-night, in harmony and strength around the Republican 
banner. 

It militates not at all against this view to tell us that the Repub- 
licans could make something in the State of New York by electing 
to Congress John B. Haskin, who occupied a position similar to 
Judge Douglas; or that they could make something by electing 
Hickman of Pennsylvania, or Davis of Indiana. I think it likety 
that they could and do make something by it ; but it is false logic 
to assume that for that reason anything could be gained by us in 
electing Judge Douglas in Illinois. And for this reason : It is no 
disparagement to these men, Hickman and Davis, to say that indi- 
vidually they were comparatively small men, and the Republican 
party could take hold of them, use them, elect them, absorb them, 
expel them, or do whatever it pleased with them, and the Repub- 
lican organization be in no wise shaken. But it is not so with Judge 
Douglas. Let the Repubhcan party of Illinois daUy with Judge Doug- 
las ; let them fall in beliind him and make him their candidate, and 
they do not absorb him — he absorbs them. They would come out at 
the end all Douglas men, aU claimed by him as having indorsed 
every one of his doctrines upon the gi-eat subject with which the whole 
nation is engaged at this hour — that the question of negro slavery 
is simply a question of doUars and cents; that the Almighty has 
Vol. I.— 34. 



530 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

drawn a line across the continent, on one side of which labor — the 
cultivation of the soil — must always be performed by slaves. It 
would be claimed that we, like him, do not care whether slavery is 
voted up or voted down. Had we made him our candidate and 
given him a great majority, we should never have heard an end of 
declarations by him that we had indorsed all these dogmas. 

You all remember that at the last session of Congress there was 
a measure introduced in the Senate by Mr. Crittenden which pro- 
posed that the pro-slavery Lecompton constitution should be left to a 
vote to be taken in Kansas, and if it and slavery were adopted, Kan- 
sas should be at once admitted as a slave State. That same measure 
was introduced into the House by Mr. Montgomery, and therefore 
got the name of the Crittenden-Montgomery bill; and in the House 
of Representatives the Republicans all voted for it under the pecu- 
liar circumstances in which they found themselves placed. You may 
remember also that the New York ''Tribune," which was so much in 
favor of our electing Judge Douglas to the Senate of the United 
States, has not yet got through the task of defending the Republi- 
can party, after that one vote in the House of Representatives, from 
the charge of having gone over to the doctrine of popular sove- 
reignty. Now, how long would the New York "Tribune" have been 
in getting rid of the charge that the Republicans had abandoned 
their principles, if we had taken up Judge Douglas, adopted aU his 
doctrines, and elected him to the Senate, when the single vote upon 
that one point so confused and embarrassed the position of the Re- 
publicans that it has kept them for one entire year arguing against 
the effect of it ? 

This much being said on that point, I wish now to add a word 
that has a bearing on the future. The Republican principle, the 
profound central truth that slavery is wrong and ought to be dealt 
with as a wrong, — though we are always to remember the fact of its 
actual existence amongst us and faithfully observe all the constitu- 
tional guarantees, — the unalterable principle never for a moment to 
be lost sight of, that it is a wrong and ought to be dealt with as such, 
cannot advance at all upon Judge Douglas's ground ; that there is 
a portion of the country in which slavery must always exist ; that 
he does not care whether it is voted up or voted down, as it is simply 
a question of dollars and cents. Whenever in any compromise, or 
arrangement, or combination that may promise some temporary ad- 
vantage we are led upon that ground, then and there the great living 
principle upon which we have organized as a party is surrendered. 
The proposition now in our minds that this thing is wrong being 
once driven out and surrendered, then the institution of slavery 
necessarily becomes national. 

One or two words more of what I did not think of when I rose. 
Suppose it is true that the Almighty has drawn a line across this 
ccmtinent, on the south side of which part of the people will hold the 
rest as slaves ; that the Almighty ordered this ; that it is right, un- 
changeably right, that men ought there to be held as slaves ; that their 
fellow-men will always have the right to hold them as slaves. I ask 
you, this once admitted, how can you believe that it is not right for 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 531 

US, or for them coming here, to hold slaves on this other side of the 
line ? Once we come to acknowledge that it is right, that it is the 
law of the Eternal Being for slavery to exist on one side of that 
line, have we any sure ground to object to slaves being held on the 
other side? Once admit the position that a man rightfully holds 
another man as property on one side of the line, and you must, when 
it suits his convenience to come to the other side, admit that he has 
the same right to hold his property there. Once admit Judge Doug- 
las's proposition, and we must all finally give way. Although we 
may not bring ourselves to the idea that it is to our interest to have 
slaves in this Northern country, we shall soon bring ourselves to 
admit that while we may not want them, if any one else does, he has 
the moral right to have them. Step by step, south of the judge's 
moral climate line in the States, in the Territories everywhere, and 
then in all the States — it is thus that Judge Douglas would lead 
us inevitably to the nationalization of slavery. Whether by his doc- 
trine of squatter sovereignty, or by the ground taken by him in his re- 
cent speeches in Memphis and through the South, — that wherever the 
climate makes it the interest of the inhabitants to encourage slave 
property they will pass a slave code, — whether it is covertly nation- 
alized by congressional legislation, or by Dred Scott decision, or by 
the sophistical and misleading doctrine he has last advanced, the 
same goal is inevitably reached by the one or the other device. It 
is only traveling to the same place by different roads. 

It is in this direction lies all the danger that now exists to the 
great Republican cause. I take it that so far as concerns forcibly 
establishing slavery in the Territories by congressional legislation, 
or by virtue of the Dred Scott decision, that day has passed. Our 
only serious danger is that we shall be led upon this ground of Judge 
Douglas, on the delusive assumption that it is a good way of whipping 
our opponents, when in fact it is a way that leads straight to final sur- 
render. The Republican party should not dally with Judge Douglas 
when it knoAvs where his proposition and his leadership would take 
us, nor be disposed to listen to it because it was best somewhere else 
to support somebody occupying his ground. That is no just reason 
why we ought to go over to Judge Douglas, as we were called upon 
to do last year. Never forget that we have before us this whole 
matter of the right or wrong of slavery in this Union, though the 
immediate question is as to its spreading out into new Territories 
and States. 

I do not wish to be misunderstood upon this subject of slavery 
in this country. I suppose it may long exist; and perhaps the best 
way for it to come to an end peaceably is for it to exist for a length 
of time. But I say that the spread and strengthening and perpetua- 
tion of it is an entirely different proposition. There we should in 
every way resist it as a wrong, treating it as a wrong, with the fixed 
idea that it must and will come to an end. If we do not allow our- 
selves to be allured from the strict path of our duty by such a device 
as shifting our ground and throwing us into the rear of a leader 
who denies our fii*st principle, denies that there is an absolute wi'ong 
in the institution of slavery, then the future of the Republican cause 



532 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

is safe, and victory is assured. You Republicans of Illinois have 
deliberately taken your ground ; you have heard the whole subject 
discussed again and again ; you have stated your faith in platforms 
laid down in a State convention and in a national convention; you 
have heard and talked over and considered it until j'ou are now all 
of opinion that j^ou ai'e on a ground of unquestionable right. All 
you have to do is to keep the faith, to remain steadfast to the right, 
to stand by your banner. Nothing should lead you to leave your 
guns. Stand together, ready, with match in hand. Allow nothing 
to turn you to the right or to the left. Remember how long you 
have been in setting out on the true course; how long you have been 
in getting your neighbors to understand and believe as you now do. 
Stand by your principles, stand by your guns, and victory, complete 
and permanent, is sure at the last. 

March 28, 1859.— Letter to W. M. Morris. 

Springfield, March 28, 1859. 
W. M. Morris, Esq. 

Dear Sir : Your kind note inviting me to deliver a lecture at 
Galesburg is received. I regret to say I cannot do so now ; I must 
stick to the courts awhile. I read a sort of lecture to three differ- 
ent audiences during the last month and this ; but I did so under 
circumstances which made it a waste of no time whatever. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 

April 6, 1859.— Letter to H. L. Pierce and others. 

Springfield, III., April 6, 1859. 

Oentlemen: Your kind note inviting me to attend a festival in 
Boston, on the 28th instant, in honor of the birthday of Thomas 
Jefferson, was duly received. My engagements are such that I can- 
not attend. 

Bearing in mind that about seventy years ago two great political 
parties were first formed in this countr}-, that Thomas Jefferson was 
the head of one of them and Boston the headquarters of the other, 
it is both curious and interesting that those supposed to descend 
politically from the party opposed to Jefferson should now be cele- 
brating his birthday in their own original seat of empire, while 
those claiming political descent from him have nearly ceased to 
breathe his name everj^where. 

Remembering, too, that the Jefferson party was formed upon its 
supposed superior devotion to the personal rights of men, holding 
the rights of property to be secondary only, and greatly inferior, 
and assuming that the so-called Democracj^ of to-day are the 
Jefferson, and their opponents the anti-Jefferson, party, it wiU be 
equally interesting to note how completely the two have changed 
hands as to the principle upon which they were originally sup- 
posed to be divided. The Democracy of to-day hold the liberty of 
one man to be absolutely nothing, when in conflict with another 
man's right of property; Republicans, on the contrary, are for 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 533 

both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before 
the dollar. 

I remember being once much amused at seeing two partially in- 
toxicated men engaged in a fight with their great-coats on, which 
fight, after a long and rather harmless contest, ended in each hav- 
ing fought himself out of his own coat and into tliat of the other. 
If the two leading parties of this day are really identical with the 
two in the days of Jefferson and Adlims, they have performed the 
same feat as the two drunken men. 

But, soberly, it is now no child's play to save the principles of 
Jefferson from total overthrow in this nation. One would state 
with great confidence that he could convince any sane child that 
the simpler propositions of Euclid are true; but nevertheless he 
would fail, utterly, with one who should deny the definitions and 
axioms. The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms 
of free society. And yet they are denied and evaded, with no small 
show of success. One dashingly calls them ''glittering generali- 
ties." Another bluutly calls them " self-evident lies." And others 
insidiously argue that they apply to "su))erior races." These ex- 
pressions, differing in form, are identical in object and effect — the 
supplanting the principles of free government, and restoring those 
of classification, caste, and legitimacy. They would delight a con- 
vocation of crowned heads plotting against the people. They are 
the vanguard, the miners and sappers of returning despotism. 
We must repulse them, or they will subjugate us. This is a world 
of compensation ; and he who would be no slave must consent to 
have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not 
for themselves, and, under a just Grod, cannot long retain it. All 
honor to Jefferson — to the man who, in the concrete pressure of a 
struggle for national independence by a single people, had the cool- 
ness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary 
document an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and 
so to embalm it there that to-day and in all coming days it shall be 
a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbinu(M"s of reappear- 
ing tyranny and oppression. Your obedient servant, 

Messrs. H. L. Pierce and others. A. Lincoln. 

April 16, 1859. — Letter to T. J. Pickett. 

Springfield, April 16, 1859. 
T. J. Pickett, Esq. 

My iUar Sir : Yours of the 13th is just received. My engagements 
are such that I cannot at any very early day visit Kook Island to 
deliver a lecture, or for any other object. As to the other matter you 
kindly mention, I must in'candor say I do not thitdv myself fit for 
the presidency. I certainly am flattered and gratified that some 
partial friends think of me'in that connection ; but I really think it 
best for our cause that no concerted effort, such as you suggest, 
should be made. Let this be considered confidential. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 



534 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

May 14, 1859.— Letter to M. W. Delahay. 

May 14, 1859. 
M. W. Delahay. 

. . . Yoii will probably adopt resolutions in the nature of a 
platform. I think the only temptation will be to lower the Repub- 
lican standard in order to gather recruits. In my judgment such a 
step would be a serious mistake, and open a gap through which more 
would pass out than pass in. And this would be the same whether 
the letting down should be in deference to Dougiasism or to the 
Southern opposition element; either would surrender the object of 
the Republican organization — the preventing of the spread and na- 
tionalization of slavery. This object surrendered, the organization 
would go to pieces. I do not mean by this that no Southern man 
must be placed upon our national ticket in 1860. There are many 
men in the slave States for any one of whom I could cheerfully vote 
to be either President or Vice-President, pro\dded he would enable 
me to do so with safety to the Republican cause, without lowering 
the Republican standard. This is the indispensable condition of a 
union with us ; it is idle to talk of any other. Any other would be 
as fruitless to the South as distasteful to the North, the whole 
ending in common defeat. Let a union be attempted on the basis of 
ignoring the slavery question, and magnifying otner questions which 
the people are just now not caring about, and it will result in gain- 
ing no single electoral vote in the South, and losing every one in 
the North. . . . 

May 17, 1859.— Letter to T. Canisius. 

Springfield, May 17, 1859. 
Dr. Theodore Canisius. 

Dear Sir: Your note asking, in behalf of yourself and other Ger- 
man citizens, whether I am for or against the constitutional provi- 
sion in regard to naturalized citizens, lately adopted by Massachu- 
setts, and whether I am for or against a fusion of the Republicans, 
and other opposition elements, for the canvass of 1860, is received. 

Massachusetts is a sovereign and independent State ; and it is no 
privilege of mine to scold her for what she does. Still, if from what 
she has done an inference is sought to be drawn as to what I would 
do, I may without impropriety speak out. I say, then, that, as I 
understand the Massachusetts provision, I am against its adoption 
in Illinois, or in any other place where I have a right to oppose it. 
Understanding the spirit of our institutions to aim at the elevation 
of men, I am opposed to whatever tends to degrade them. I have 
some little notoriety for commiserating the oppressed negro ; and I 
should be stran^-ely inconsistent if I could favor any project for cur- 
tailing the existing rights of white men, even though born in different 
lands, and speaking different languages from myself. As to the 
matter of fusion, I am for it, if it can be had on Republican grounds; 
and I am not for it on any other terms. A fusion on any other 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN 535 

terms would be as foolish as unprincipled. It would lose the whole 
North, while the common enemy would still carry the whole South. 
The question of men is a different one. There are good patriotic 
men and able statesmen in the South whom I would cheerfully sup- 
port, if they would now place themselves on Republican ground, 
but I am against letting down the Republican standard a hair's- 
breadth. 

^ I have written this hastily, but I believe it answers your ques- 
tions substantially. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

July 6, 1859. — Letter to Schuyler Colfax. 

Springfield, III., July 6, 1859. 
Hon. Schuyler Colfax. 

My dear Sir : I much regret not seeing you while you were here 
among us. Before learning that you were to be at Jacksonville on 
the 4th, I had given my word to be at another place. Besides a 
strong desire to make your personal acquaintance, I was anxious to 
speak with you on politics a little more fully than I can well do in 
a letter. My main object in such conversation would be to hedge 
against divisions in the Republican ranks generally, and particularly 
for the contest of 1860. The point of danger is the temptation in 
different localities to " platform " for something which will be popu- 
lar just there, but which, nevertheless, will be a firebrand elsewhere, 
and especially in a national convention. As instances, the move- 
ment against foreigners in Massachusetts ; in New Hampshire, to 
make obedience to the fugitive-slave law punishable as a crime ; iu 
Ohio, to repeal the fugitive-slave law ; and squatter sovereignty, in 
Kansas. In these things there is explosive matter enough to blow 
up half a dozen national conventions, if it gets into them ; and what 
gets very rife outside of conventions is veiy likely to find its way into 
them. What is desirable, if possible, is that in every local convoca- 
tion of Republicans a point should be made to avoid everything 
which will disturb Republicans elsewhere. Massachusetts Republi- 
cans should have looked beyond their noses, and then th(?y could not 
have failed to see that tilting against foreigners would ruin us in 
the whole Northwest. New Hampshire and Ohio should forbear 
tilting against the fugitive-slave laAV iu such a way as to utterly 
overwhelm us in Illinois with the charge of enmity to tlie Constitu- 
tion itself. Kansas, in her confidence that she can be saved to free- 
dom on ''squatter sovereignty," ought not to forget that to prevent 
the spread and nationalization of slavery is a national concern, and 
must be attended to by the nation. In a word, in every locality we 
should look beyond our noses ; and at least say nothing on points 
where it is probable we shall disagree. I write tins for your eye 
only ; hoping, however, if you see danger as I think I do, you will 
do what you can to avert it. Could not suggestions be made to lead- 
ing men in the State and congressional conventions, and so avoid, 
to some extent at least, these apples of discord? 

Yours very truly, A. LmcOLN. 



536 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABKAHASI LINCOLN 



July 11, 1859. — Letter to James Miller, Treasurer of the 
State op Illinois. 

Springfield, III., July 11, 1859. 
Hon. James Miller. 

Dear Sir: We suppose you are persistently urged to pay some- 
thing upon the new McCallister and Stebbins bonds. As friends of 
yours and of the people, we advise you to pay nothing upon them 
under any possible eh-cunistances. The holders of them did a great 
wrong, and are now persisting in it in a way which deserves severe 
punishment. They know the legislature has again and again refused 
to fully recognize the old bonds. Seizing upon an act never in- 
tended to apply to them, they besieged Governor Bissell more than 
a year ago to fund the old bonds ; he refused. They sought a man- 
damus upon him from the Supreme Court; the court refused. Again 
they besieged the governor last winter; he sought to have them go 
before the legislature ; they refused. Still they persisted, and dogged 
him in his afflicted condition till they got from him what the agent in 
New York acted upon and issued the new bonds. Now they refuse 
to surrender them, hoping to force an acquiescence, for Governor 
Bissell's sake. '^ That cock won't fight," and they may as weU so 
understand at once. If the news of the surrender of the new bonds 
does not reach here in ten days from this date, we shall do what we 
can to have them repudiated in toto, finally and forever. If they 
were less than demons they would at once relieve Governor Bissell 
from the painful position they have dogged him into ; and if they 
still persist, they shall never see even the twenty-six cents to the 
dollar, if we can prevent it. Yours very truly, 

A. Lincoln, 
S. T. Logan, 
O. M. Hatch. 

July 27, 1859.— Letter to S. Galloway. 

Springfield, III., July 27, 1859. 
Hon. Sajiuel Galloway. 

My dear Sir : Yonr letter in relation to the claim of Mr. Ambos 
for the Columbus Machine Manufacturing Company against Barret 
and others is received. This has been a somewhat disagreeable mat- 
ter to me. As I remember, you first wi'ote me on the general subject, 
Barret having then had a credit of four or five hundred dollars, and 
there was some question about his taking the machinery. I think 
you inquired as to Barret's responsibility ; and that I answered I 
considered him an honest and honorable man, having a great deal of 

froperty, owing a good many debts, and hard pressed for ready cash, 
was a little surprised soon after to learn that they had enlarged 
the credit to near ten thousand dollars, more or less. They 
wrote me to take notes and a mortgage, and to hold on to the notes 
awhile to fix amounts. I inferred the notes and mortgage were both 
to be held up for a time, and did so ; Barret gave a second mortgage 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 537 

on part of the premises, which was first recorded, and then I was 
blamed some for not having recorded the other mortgage when first 
executed. My chief annoyance with the case now is that the parties 
at Columbus seem to think it is by my neglect that they do not get 
their money. There is an older mortgage on the real estate mort- 
gaged, though not on the machinery. I got a decree of foreclosure 
in this present month ; but I consented to delay advertising for sale 
till September, on a reasonable prospect that something will then be 
paid on a collateral Barret has put in my hands. When we come to 
sell on the decree, what will we do about the older mortgage ? Bar- 
ret has offered one or two other good notes — that is, notes on good 
men — if we would take them., pro tanto,as payment, but I notified 
Mr. Ambos, and he declined. My impression is that the whole of 
the money cannot be got very soon, anyway, but that it all will 
be ultimately collected, and that it could be got faster by turning in 
every little parcel we can, than by trying to force it through by the 
law in a lump. There are no special personal relations between Bar- 
ret and myself. We are personal friends in a general way — no 
business transactions between us — not akin, and opposed on politics. 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 



July 28, 1859. — Letter to S. Galloway. 

Springfield, III., July 28, 1859. 
Hon. Samuel Galloway. 

My dear Sir : Your very complimentary, not to say flattering, 
letter of the 23d inst. is received. Dr. Reynolds had induced me to 
expect you here; and I was disappointed not a little by your failure 
to come. And yet I fear you have formed an estimate of me which 
can scarcely be sustained on a personal acquaintance. 

Two things done by the Ohio Republican convention — the repudi- 
ation of Judge Swan, and the " plank " for a repeal of the fugitive- 
slave law — I very much regretted. These two things are of a piece; 
and they are viewed by many good men, sincerely opposed to slavery, 
as a struggle against, and in disregard of, the Constitution itself. 
And it is the very thing that will greatly endanger our cause, if it 
be not kept out of our national convention. There is another thing 
our friends are doing which gives me some uneasiness. It is their 
leaning toward " popular sovereignty." There are three substantial 
objections to this. First, no party can command respect which sus- 
tains this year what it opposed last. Secondly, Douglas (who is the 
most dangerous enemy of liberty, because the most insidious one) 
would have little support in the North, and by consequence, no cap- 
ital to trade on in the South, if it were not for his friends thus mag- 
nifying him and his humbug. But lastly, and chiefly, Douglas's 
popular sovereignty, accepted by the public mind as a just principle, 
nationalizes slavery, and revives the African slave-trade inevitably. 
Taking slaves into new Territories, and buying slaves in Africa, are 
identical things, identical rights or identical wrongs, and the argu- 
ment which estabhshes one will establish the other. Try a thousand 



538 ADDRESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

years for a sound reason why Congress shall not hinder the people 
of Kansas from having slaves, and when you have found it, it will be 
an equally good one why Congress should not hinder the people of 
Georgia from importing slaves from Africa. 

As to Governor Chase, I have a kind side for him. He was one 
of the few distinguished men of the nation who gave us, in Illinois, 
their sympathy last year. I never saw him, but suppose him to be 
able and right-minded ; but still he may not be the most suitable as 
a candidate for the presidency. 

I must say I do not think myself fit for the presidency. As you 
propose a correspondence with me, I shall look for youi' letters 
anxiously. 

I have not met Dr. Reynolds since receiving your letter ; but when 
I shall, I will present your respects as requested. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 



September 16, 1859. — Speech at Columbus, Ohio. 

Fellow-citizens of the State of Ohio: I cannot fail to remember that 
I appear for the first time before an audience in this now great 
State — an audience that is accustomed to hear such speakers as Cor- 
win, and Chase, and Wade, and many other renowned men ; and re- 
membering this, I feel that it will be well for you, as for me, that 
you should not raise your expectatious to that standard to which you 
would have been justified in raising them had one of these distin- 
guished men appeared before you. You would perhaps be only pre- 
paring a disappointment for yourselves, and, as a consequence of 
your disappointment, mortification to me. I hope, therefore, that 
you will commence with very moderate expectations ; and perhaps, 
if you will give me your attention, I shall be able to interest you to 
a moderate degree. 

Appearing here for the first time in my life, I have been somewhat 
embarrassed for a topic by way of introduction to my speech ; but I 
have been relieved from that embarrassment by an introduction 
which the " Ohio Statesman " newspaper gave me this morning. In 
this paper I have read an article in which, among other statements, 
I find the following : 

Tn debating with Senator Douglas during the memorable contest last fall, 
Mr. Lincoln declared in favor of negi'o suffrage, and attempted to defend 
that vile conception against the Little Giant, 

I mention this now, at the opening of my remarks, for the purpose 
of making three comments upon it. The first I have already an- 
nounced — it furnished me an introductory topic; the second is to 
show that the gentleman is mistaken ; thirdly, to give him an op- 
portunity to correct it. 

In the first place, in regard to this matter being a mistake. I 
have found that it is not entirely safe, when one is misrepresented 
under his very nose, to allow the misrepresentation to go uncontra- 
dicted. I therefore propose, here at the outset, not only to say that 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 539 

this is a misrepresentation, but to show conclusively that it is so ; 
and you will bear with me while I read a couple of extracts from 
that very "memorable" debate with Judge Douglas last year, to 
which this newspaper refers. In the first pitched battle which 
Senator Douglas and myseK had, at the town of Ottawa, I used 
the language which I will now read. Having been previously read- 
ing an extract, I continued as follows: 

Now, gentlemen, I don't want to read at any greater length, but this is 
the true complexion of all I have ever said in regard to the institution of 
slavery and the black race. This is the whole of it, and anything that 
ai'gues nie into his idea of perfect social and political equality with the 
negro is but a specious and fantastic arrangement of words, by which a 
man can prove a horse-chestnut to be a chestnut horse. I will say here, 
while upon this subject, that I have no purpose either directly or indirectly 
to intex'fere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I 
believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. 
I have no piu'pose to introduce political and social equality between the 
white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the two 
which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living together 
upon the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it becomes a neces- 
sity that there must be a difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in 
favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position. I have 
never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that, notwithstanding all 
this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to aU the 
natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled 
to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas, he is not my equal 
in many respects — certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellec- 
tual endowments. But in the right to eat the bread, without leave of any- 
body else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal, and the equal of 
Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man. 

Upon a subsequent occasion, when the reason for making a state- 
ment like this recurred, I said: 

WhUe I was at the hotel to-day an elderly gentleman called upon me to 
know whether I was really in favor of producing a perfect equality between 
the negroes and white people. While I had not proposed to myself on this 
occasion to say much on that subject, yet as the question was asked me I 
thought I would occupy perhaps tive minutes in saying something in regard 
to it. I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing 
about in any way the social and political equality of the white and the black 
races — that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or ju- 
rors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with 
white people ; and I will say in addition to this, that there is a physical dif- 
ference between the white and the black races, which, I believe, will forever 
forbid the two races living together on terms of social and poUtieal equality. 
And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there 
must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other 
man, am in favor of ha\'ing the superior position assigned to the white race. 
I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to 
have the superior position, the negro should be denied everything. I do 
not understand that because I do not want a negrro woman for a slave, I must 
necessarily want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can just let her 
alone. T am now in my fiftieth year; and I certainly never have had a 



540 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

black woman for either a slave ov a ^\ife. So it seems to me quite possible 
for lis to get along without making either slaves or wives of negroes. I will 
add to tliis, that I have never seen to my Icnowledge a man, woman, or child 
who was in favor of producing a perfect equality, social and political, be- 
tween negroes and white men. I recollect of but one distinguished instance 
that I ever heard of so frequently as to be entii-ely satisfied of its coiTect- 
ness — and that is the case of Judge Douglas's old friend. Colonel Richard 
M. Johnson. I Avill also add to the remarks T have made (for I am not 
going to enter at large upon this subject), that I have never had the least 
apprehension that I or my friends would marry negi'oes, if there was no law 
to keep them from it ; biit as Judge Douglas and his friends seem to be in 
great apprehension that they might, if there were no law to keep them from 
it, I give him the most solemn pledge that I will to the very last stand by the 
law of the State, which forbids the marrying of white people with negi-oes. 

There, my friends, you have briefly what I have, upon former oc- 
casions, said upon the subject to which this newspaper, to the extent 
of its ability, has drawn the public attention. In it you not only 
perceive, as a probability, that in that contest I did not at any time 
say I was in favor of negro suffrage ; but the absolute proof that 
twice — once substantially and once expressly — I declared against 
it. Having shown you this, there remains but a word of comment 
upon that newspaper article. It is this : that I presume the editor of 
that paper is an honest and truth-loving man, and that he will be 
greatly obliged to me for furnishing him thus early an opportunity 
to correct the misrepresentation he has made, before it has run so 
long that malicious people can call him a liar. 

The giant himself has been here recently. I have seen a brief re- 
port of his speech. If it were otherwise unpleasant to me to intro- 
duce the subject of the negro as a topic for discussion, I might be 
somewhat relieved by the fact that he dealt exclusively in that sub- 
ject while he was here. I shall, therefore, without much hesitation 
or diffidence, enter upon this subject. 

The American people, on the first day of January, 1854, found the 
African slave-trade prohibited by a law of Congress. In a majority 
of the States of this Union, they found African slavery, or any other 
sort of slavery, prohibited by State constitutions. They also found 
a law existing, supposed to be valid, by which slavery was excluded 
from almost all the territory the United States then owned. This 
was the condition of the country, with reference to tlie institution of 
slavery, on the first of January, 1854. A few days after that, a bill 
was introduced into Congress, which ran through its regular course 
in the two branches of the national legislature, and finally passed into 
a law in the mouth of May, by which the act of Congress prohibiting 
slavery from going into the Territories of the United States was re- 
pealed. In connection with the law itself, and, in fact, in the terms 
of the law, the then existing prohibition was not only repealed, but 
there was a declaration of a purpose on the part of Congress never 
thereafter to exercise any power that they might have, real or sup- 
posed, to prohibit the extension or spread of slavery. This was a 
very great change ; for the law thus repealed was of more than thirty 
years' standing. Following rapidly upon the heels of this action of 
Congress, a decision of the Supreme Court is made, by which it is 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 541 

declared that Congress, if it desires to prohibit the spread of slavery 
into the Territories, has no constitutional power to do so. Not only 
so, but that decision lays down principles, which, if pushed to their 
logical conclusion, — I say pushed to their logical conclusion, — would 
decide that the constitutions of free States, forbidding slavery, are 
themselves unconstitutional. Mark me, I do not say the judge's said 
this, and let no man say I affirm the judges used these words ; but I 
only say it is my opinion that what they did say, if pressed to its 
logical conclusion, w^ll inevitably result thus. 

Looking at these things, the Republican party, as I understand its 
principles and policy, believes that there is great danger of the institu- 
tion of slavery being spread out and extended, until it is ultimately 
made alike lawful in all the States of this Union ; so believing, to 
prevent that incidental and ultimate consummation is the original 
and chief purpose of the Republican organization. I say ''chief pur- 
pose" of the Republican organization; for it is certainly true that if 
the national house shall fall into the hands of the Republicans, they 
will have to attend to all the other matters of national house-keep- 
ing as well as this. The chief and real purpose of the Republican 
party is eminently conservative. It proposes nothing save and ex- 
cept to restore this government to its original tone in regard to 
this element of slavery, and there to maintain it, looking for no fur- 
ther change in reference to it than that which the original framers 
of the government themselves expected and looked forward to. 

The chief danger to this purpose of the Republican party is not 
just now the revival of the African slave-trade, or the passage of a 
congressional slave-code, or the declaring of a second Dred Scott 
decision, making slavery lawful in all the States. These are not 
pressing us just now. They are not quite ready yet. The authors 
of these measures know that we are too strong for them; but they 
will be upon us in due time, and we will be grappling with them 
hand to hand, if they are not now headed off. They are not now the 
chief danger to the purpose of the Republican organization; but the 
most imminent danger tliat now threatens that purpose is that 
insidious Douglas popular sovereignty. This is the miner and 
sapper. While it does not propose to revive the African slave-trade, 
nor to pass a slave-code, nor to make a second Dred Scott decision, 
it is preparing us for the onslaught and charge of these ultimate 
enemies when they shall be ready to come on, and the word of com- 
mand for them to advance shall be given. I say this Douglas popular 
sovereignty — for there is a broad distinction, as I now understand 
it, between that article and a genuine popular sovereignty. 

I believe there is a genuine popular sovereignty. I think a defini- 
tion of genuine popular sovereignty, in the abstract, would be about 
this: That each man shall do precisely as he pleases with himself, 
and with all tliose things which exclusively concern him. Applied 
to government, this principle would be, tliat a general government 
shall do all those things which pertain to it, and all the local govern- 
ments shall do precisely as they please in respect to those matters 
which exclusively concern them. I understand that this govern- 
ment of the United States, under which we live, is based upon this 



542 ADDRESSES Ai^D LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

principle ; and I am misunderstood if it is supposed that I have any 
war to make upon that principle. 

Now, what is Judge Douglas's popular sovereignty ? It is, as a 
principle, no other than that if one man chooses to make a slave of 
another man, neither that other man nor anybody else has a right 
to object. Apphed in government, as he seeks to apply it, it is this: 
If , in a new Territory into which a few people are beginning to enter 
for the purpose of making their homes, they choose to either exclude 
slavery from their limits or to establish it there, however one or the 
other may affect the persons to be enslaved, or the infinitely greater 
number of persons who are afterward to inhabit that Territory, or 
the other members of the families of communities, of which they are 
but an incipient member, or the general head of the famOy of States 
as parent of all — however their action may affect one or the other 
of these, there is no power or right to interfere. That is Douglas's 
popular sovereignty applied. 

He has a good deal of trouble with popular sovereignty. His ex- 
planations explanatory of explanations explained are interminable. 
The most lengthy and, as I suppose, the most maturely considered 
of his long series of explanations is his great essay in " Harper's 
Magazine." I will not attempt to enter on any very thorough in- 
vestigation of his argument as there made and presented. I will 
nevertheless occupy a good portion of your time here in drawing 
your attention to certain points in it. Such of you as may have read 
this document will have perceived that the judge, early in the docu- 
ment, quotes from two persons as belonging to the Republican party, 
withoiit naming them, but who can readily be recognized as being 
Governor Seward, of New York, and myself. It is true that exactly 
fifteen months ago this day, I believe, I for the first time expressed 
a sentiment upon this subject, and in such a manner that it should 
get into print, that the public might see it beyond the circle of my 
hearers, and my expression of it at that time is the quotation that 
Judge Douglas makes. He has not made the quotation with accu- 
racy, but justice to him requires me to say that it is sufficiently ac- 
curate not to change its sense. 

The sense of that quotation condensed is this — that this slavery 
element is a durable element of discord among us, and that we shall 
probably not have perfect peace in this country with it until it either 
masters the free principle in our government, or is so far mastered 
by the free principle as for the public mind to rest in the belief that 
it is going to its end. This sentiment which I now express in this 
way was, at no great distance of time, perhaps in different language, 
and in connection with some collateral ideas, expressed by Governor 
Seward. Judge Douglas has been so much annoyed by the expres- 
sion of that sentiment that he has constantly, I believe, in almost all 
his speeches since it was uttered, been referring to it. I find he al- 
luded to it in his speech here, as well as in the copyright essay. I 
do not now enter upon this for the purpose of making an elaborate 
argument to show that we were right in the expression of that senti- 
ment. I only ask yoiu' attention to this matter for the purpose of 
making one or two points upon it. 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 543 

If you will read the copyright essay, you will discover that Judge 
Douglas himself says a controversy between the American colonies 
and the government of Great Britain began on the slavery question 
in 1699, and continued from that time until the Revolution ; and, 
while he did not say so, we all know that it has continued with more 
or less violence ever since the Revolution. 

Then we need not appeal to history, to the declaration of the 
framers of the government, but we know from Judge Douglas him- 
self that slavery began to be an element of discord among the white 
people of this country as far back as 1G99, or one hundred and sixty 
years ago, or five generations of men — counting thirty years to a 
generation. Now it woidd seem to me that it might have occurred to 
Judge Douglas, or to anybody who had turned his attention to these 
facts, that there was something in the nature of that thing, slavery, 
somewhat durable for mischief and discord. 

There is another point I desire to make in regard to this matter 
before I leave it. From the adoption of the Constitution down to 
1820 is the precise period of our histoiy when we had comparative 
peace upon this question — the precise period of time when we came 
nearer to having peace about it than any other time of that entire one 
hundred and sixty years, in which he says it began, or of the eighty 
years of our own Constitution. Then it would be worth our while 
to stop and examine into the probable reason of our coming nearer 
to having peace then than at any other time. This was the precise 
period of time in which our fathers adopted, and during which they 
followed, a policy restricting the spread of slavery, and the whole 
Union was acquiescing in it. The whole country looked forward to 
the ultimate extinction of the institution. It was when a policy had 
been adopted and was prevailing, which led all just and right-minded 
men to suppose that slavery was gradually coming to an end, and 
that they might be quiet about it, watching it as it expired. I think 
Judge Douglas might have perceived that too, and, whether he did 
or not, it is worth the attention of fair-minded men, here and else- 
where, to consider whether that is not the truth of the case. If he 
had looked at these two facts, that this matter has been an element 
of discord for one hundred and sixty years among this people, and 
that the only comparative peace we have had about it was when 
that policy prevailed in this government, which he now wars upon, 
he might then, perhaps, have been brought to a more just apprecia- 
tion of what I said fifteen months ago — that ''a house divided 
against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot en- 
dure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the 
Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall ; but I do 
expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or 
aU the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the fur- 
ther spread of it, and place it where the public mind will rest in the 
belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates 
will push it forward, until it shall become alike lawful in all the 
States, old as well as new. North as well as South." That was my 
sentiment at that time. In connection with it I said, "We are now 
far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed 



544 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

object and coufident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. 
Under tlie operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not 
ceased, but has constantly augmented." I now say to you here that 
we are advanced still farther into the sixth year since that policy of 
Judge Douglas — that popular sovereignty of his for quieting the 
slavery question — was made the national policy. Fifteen months 
more have been added since I uttered that sentiment, and I call 
upon you, and all other right-minded men, to say whether those fifteen 
months have belied or corroborated my words. 

While I am hereupon this subject, I cannot but express gratitude 
that the true view of this element of discord among us — as I believe 
it is — is attracting more and more attention. I do not believe that 
Governor Seward uttered that sentiment because I had done so be- 
fore, but because he reflected upon this subject, and saw the truth of it. 
Nor do I believe, because Governor Seward or I uttered it, that Mr. 
Hickman, of Pennsylvania, in different language, since that time, has 
declared his belief in the utter antagonism which exists between the 
principles of liberty and slavery. You see we are multiplying. Now, 
while I am speaking of Hickman, let me say, I know but little about 
him. I have never seen him, and know scarcely anything about the 
man ; but I will say this much about him : Of a;ll the anti-Lecompton 
Democracy that have been brought to my notice, he alone has the 
true, genuine ring of the metal. And now, without indorsing any- 
thing else he has said, I will ask this audience to give three cheers for 
Hickman. [The audience responded with three rousing cheers for 
Hickman.] 

Another point in the copyright essay to which I would ask your 
attention is rather a feature to be extracted from the whole thing, 
than from any express declaration of it at any point. It is a general 
feature of that document, and indeed, of all of Judge Douglas's dis- 
cussions of this question, that the Territories of the United States and 
the States of this Union are exactly alike — that there is no difference 
between them at all — that the Constitution applies to the Territories 
precisely as it does to the States — and that the United States Gov- 
ernment, under the Constitution, may not do in a State what it may 
not do in a Territory, and what it must do in a State, it must do in a 
Territory. Gentlemen, is that a true view of the case? It is neces- 
sary for this squatter sovereignty ; but is it true ? 

Let us consider. What does it depend upon ? It depends altogether 
upon the proposition that the States must, without the interference 
of the General Government, do all those things that pertain exclu- 
sively to themselves — that are local in their nature, that have no 
connection with the General Government. After Judge Douglas has 
established this proposition, which nobody disputes or ever has dis- 
puted, he proceeds to assume, without proving it, that slavery is one 
of those little, unimportant, trivial matters, which are of just about 
as much consequence as the question would be to me whether my 
neighbor should raise horned cattle or plant tobacco ; that there is 
no moral question about it, but that it is altogether a matter of dol- 
lars and cents; that when a new Territory is opened for settlement, 
the first man who goes into it may plant there a thing which, like the 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 545 

Canada thistle, or some other of those pests of the soil, caunot be dug 
out by the millions of men who will come thereafter ; that it is one 
of those little things that is so trivial in its nature that it has no 
effect upon anybody save the few men who first plant upon the soil ; 
that it is not a thing which in any way affects the family of commu- 
nities composing these States, nor any way endangers the General 
Government. Judge Douglas ignores altogether the very well-known 
fact that we have never had a serious menace to our political exis- 
tence, except it sprang from this thing, which he chooses to regard as 
only upon a par with onions and potatoes. 

Tin-n it, and contemplate it in another view. He says that, ac- 
cording to his popular sovereignty, the General Government may 
give to the Territories governors, judges, marshals, secretaries, and 
all the other chief men to govern them, but they must not touch 
upon this other question. Why? The question of who shall be 
governor of a Territory for a year or two, and pass away, without 
his track being left upon the soil, or an act which he did for good or 
for evil being left behind, is a question of vast national magnitude. 
It is so much opposed in its nature to locality that the nation itself 
must decide it; while this other matter of planting slavery upon a 
soil — a thing which, once planted, cannot be eradicated by the suc- 
ceeding millions who have as much right there as the first comers, 
or if eradicated, not without infinite difficulty and a long strug- 
gle — he considers the power to prohibit it as one of these little, 
local, trivial things that the nation ought not to say a word about ; 
that it affects nobody save the few men who are there. 

Take these two things and consider them together, present the 
question of planting a State with the institution of slavery by the 
side of a question of who shall be governor of Kansas for a year or 
two, and is there a man here — is there a man on earth — who would 
not say the governor question is the little one, and the slaveiy 
question is the great one? I ask any honest Democrat if the small, 
the local, and the trivial and temporary question is not, Wlio shall 
be governor? — while the durable, the important, and the mischievous 
one is. Shall this soil be planted with slavery? 

This is an idea, I suppose, which has arisen in Judge Douglas's 
mind from his peculiar structure. I suppose the institution of 
slavery really looks small to him. He is so put up by nature that 
a lash upon his back would hurt him, but a lash upon anybody 
else's back does not hurt him. That is the build of the man, and 
consequently he looks upon the matter of slavery in this unim- 
portant light. 

Judge Douglas ought to remember, when he is endeavoring to 
force this policy upon the American people, that while he is put up 
in that way, a good many are not. He ought to remember that 
there was once in this country a man by the name of Thomas 
Jefferson, supposed to be a Democrat — a man whose principles and 
policy are not very prevalent amongst Democrats to-day, it is true ; 
but that man did not take exactly this ^dew of the insignificance of 
the element of slavery which our friend Judge Douglas does. In 
contemplation of this thing, we all know he was led to exclaim, " I 
Vol. I.— 35. 



546 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tremble for my country wlien I remember that God is just ! " We 
know how he looked upon it when he thus expressed himself. 
There was danger to this country, danger of the avenging justice 
of God, in that little unimportant popular-sovereignty question of 
Judge Douglas. He supposed there was a question of God's eter- 
nal justice wrapped up in the enslaving of any race of men, or 
any man, and that those who did so braved the arm of Jehovah — 
that when a nation thus dared the Almighty, every friend of that 
nation had cause to dread his wrath. Choose ye between Jefferson 
and Douglas as to what is the true view of this element among us. 

There is another little difficulty about this matter of treating the 
Territories and States alike in all things, to which I ask your atten- 
tion, and I shall leave this branch of the case. If there is no differ- 
ence between them, why not make the Territories States at once? 
What is the reason that Kansas was not fit to come into the Union 
when it was organized into a Territory, in Judge Douglas's view ! 
Can any of you tell any reason why it should not have come into 
the Union at once ? They are fit, as he thinks, to decide upon the 
slavery question — the largest and most important with which they 
could possibly deal; what could they do by coming into the Union 
that they are not fit to do, according to his view, by staying out of 
it '? Oh, they are not fit to sit in Congress and decide upon the rates 
of postage, or questions of ad valorem or specific duties on foreign 
goods, or live-oak timber contracts ; they are not fit to decide these 
vastly important matters, which are national in their import, but 
they are fit, "from the jump," to decide this little negro question. 
But, gentlemen, the case is too plain ; I occupy too much time on 
this head, and I pass on. 

Near the close of the copyright essay, the judge, I think, comes 
very near kicking his own fat into the fire. I did not think when I 
commenced these remarks that I would read from that article, but 
I now believe I will : 

This exposition of the history of these measures shows conclusively that 
the authors of the compromise measures of 1850, and of the Kansas-Nebraska 
act of 1854, as well as the members of the Continental Congress in 1774, and 
the founders of our system of government subsequent to the Revolutionj re- 
garded the people of the Territories and Colonies as political commimities 
which were entitled to a free and exclusive power of legislation in their pro- 
vincial legislatures, where their representation could alone be preserved, in 
all cases of taxation and internal polity. 

When the judge saw that putting in the word " slavery " would 
contradict his own history, he put in what he knew would pass as 
synonymous with it — "internal polity." Whenever we find that in 
one of his speeches, the substitute is used in this manner ; and I can 
tell you the reason. It would be too bald a contradiction to say 
slavery, but " internal polity " is a general phrase which would pass 
in some quarters, and which he hopes will pass with the reading com- 
munity, for the same thing. 

This right pertains to the people collectively, as a law-abiding and peace- 
ful community, and not to the isolated individuals who may wander upon 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 547 

the public domain in violation of law. It can only be exercised where 
there are inhabitants sufficient to constitute a government, and capable of 
performing its various functions and duties, a fact to be ascertained and de- 
termined by — 

Who do you think! Judge Douglas says, " By Congress." 

Whether the number shall be fixed at ten, fifteen, or twenty thousand in- 
habitants does not affect the principle. 

Now I have only a few comments to make. Popular sovereignty, 
by his own words, does not pertain to the few persons who wander 
upon the public domain in violation of law. We have his words for 
that. When it does pertain to them is when they are sufficient to 
be formed into an organized political community, and he fixes the 
minimum for that at 10,000, and the maximum at 20,000. Now I 
would like to know what is to be done with the 9,000 ? Are they all 
to be treated, until they are large enough to be organized into a 
political community, as wanderers upon the public land in violation 
of law ? And if so treated and driven out, at what point of time 
would there ever be ten thousand ? If they were not driven out, but 
remained there as trespassers upon the public land in violation of the 
law, can they establish slavery there? No ; the judge says popular 
sovereignty dou't pertain to them then. Can they exclude it then ? 
No; popular sovereignty don't pertain to them then. I would like 
to know, in the case covered by the essay, what condition the 
people of the Territory are in before they reach the number of ten 
thousand? 

But the main point I wish to ask attention to is that the question 
as to when they shall have reached a sufficient number to be formed 
into a regular organized community is to be decided "by Congress." 
Judge Douglas says so. Well, gentlemen, that is about all we want. 
No; that is all the Southerners want. That is what all those who 
are for slavery want. They do not want Congress to prohibit slav- 
ery from coming into the new Territories, and they do not want 
popular sovereignty to hinder it ; and as Congress is to say when 
they are ready to be organized, all that the South has to do is to get 
Congress to hold off. Let Congress hold off until they are ready to 
be admitted as a State, and the South has all it wants in taking slav- 
ery into and planting it in all the Territories that we now have, or 
hereafter may have. In a word, the whole thing, at a dash of the 
pen, is at last put in the power of Congress ; for if they do not have 
this popular sovereignty until Congi-ess organizes them, I ask if it 
at last does not come from Congress ? If, at last, it amounts to any- 
thing at all. Congress gives it to them. I submit this rather for your 
reflection than for comment. After all that is said, at last, by a dash 
of the pen, everything that has gone before is undone, and he puts 
the whole question under the control of Congress. After fighting 
through more than three hours, if you will undertake to read it, he 
at last places the whole matter under the control of that powei- which 
he had been contending against, and arrives at a result directly con- 
trary to what he had been laboring to do. He at last leaves the 
whole matter to the control of Congress, 



548 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

There are two main objects, as I understand it, of this " Harper's 
Magaziue" essay. One was to show, if possible, that the men of our 
Revolutionary times were in favor of his popular sovereignty ; and 
the other was to show that the Dred Scott decision had not entirely 
squelched out this popular sovereignty. I do not propose, in regard 
to this argument drawn from the history of former times, to enter 
into a detailed examination of the historical statements he has made. 
I have the impression that they are inaccurate in a great many in- 
stances; sometimes in positive statement, but very much more in- 
accurate by the suppression of statements that really belong to the 
history. But I do not propose to affirm that this is so to any very 
great extent, or to enter into a very minute examination of his his- 
torical statements. I avoid doing so upon this principle — that if it 
were important for me to pass out of this lot in the least period of 
time possible, and I came to that fence and saw by a calciilation of 
my own strength and agility that I could clear it at a bound, it would 
be folly for me to stop and consider whether I could or could not 
crawl through a crack. So I say of the whole history contained in 
his essay, where he endeavored to link the men of the Revolution to 
popular sovereignty. It only requires an effort to leap out of it — a 
single bound to be entirely successful. If you read it over you will 
find that he quotes here and there from documents of the Revolu- 
tionary times, tending to show that the people of the colonies were 
desirous of regulating their own concerns in their own way, that the 
British Government should not interfere; that at one time they 
struggled with the British Government to be permitted to exclude 
the African slave-trade ; if not dii'ectly, to be permitted to exclude it 
indirectly b}^ taxation sufficient to discourage and destroy it. From 
these and many things of this sort. Judge Douglas argues that they 
were in favor of the people of our own Territories excluding slavery 
if they wanted to, or planting it there if they wanted to, doing just as 
they pleased from the time they settled upon the Territory. Now, 
however his history may apply, and whatever of his argument there 
may be that is sound and accurate or unsound and inaccurate, if we 
can find out what these men did themselves do upon this very ques- 
tion of slavery in the Territories, does it not end the whole thing! If, 
after all this labor and effort to show that the men of the Revolution 
were in favor of his popular sovereignty and his mode of dealing 
with slaver}' in the Territories, we can show that these veiy men took 
hold of that subject, and dealt with it, we can see for oui-selves how 
they dealt with it. It is not a matter of argument or inference, but 
we know wLat they thought about it. 

It is precisely upon that part of the history of the country that 
one important omission is made by Judge Douglas. He selects parts 
of the history of the United States upon the subject of slavery, and 
treats it as the whole, omitting from his historical sketch the legisla- 
tion of Congress in regard to the admission of Missouri, by which the 
Missouri Compromise was established, and slavery excluded from a 
countr}'- half as large as the present United States. All this is left out 
of his history, and in no wise alluded to by him, so far as I can re- 
member, save once, when he makes a remark, that upon his principle 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 549 

the Supreme Court was authorized to pronounce a decision that the 
act called the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. All that 
history has been left out. But this part of the histor}- of the coun- 
try was not made by the men of the Revolution. 

There was another part of our political history made by the very 
men who were the actors in the Revolution, wdiich has taken the 
name of the ordinance of '87. Let me bring that history to your 
attention. In 1784, I believe, this same Mr, Jefferson drew up an 
ordinance for the government of the country upon which we now 
stand ; or rather a frame or draft of an ordinance for the government 
of this country, here in Ohio, our neighbors in Indiana, us who live 
in Illinois, and our neighbors in Wisconsin and Michigan. In that 
ordinance, drawn up not only for the government of that Territory, 
but for the Territories south of the Ohio River, Mr. Jefferson ex- 
pressly provided for the prohibition of slavery. Judge Douglas 
says, and perhaps he is right, that that provision was lost f I'om that 
ordinance. I believe that is true. When the vote was taken upon 
it, a majority of all present in the Congress of the Confederation 
voted for it; but there were so many absentees that those voting for 
it did not make the clear majority necessary, and it was lost. But 
three years after that the Congress of the Confederation were to- 
gether again, and they adopted a new ordinance for the government 
of this Northwest Territory, not contemplating territory south of the 
river, for the States owning that territory had hitherto refrained 
from giving it to the G-eneral Government; hence they made the 
ordinance to apply only to what the government owned. In that, 
the provision excluding slavery was inserted and passed unan- 
imously, or at any rate it passed and became a part of the law of 
the land. Under that ordinance we live. First, here, in Ohio, you 
were a Territory, then an enabling act was passed, authorizing you 
to form a constitution and State government, provided it was Repub- 
lican, and not in conflict with the ordinance of '87. When you framed 
your constitution and presented it for admission, I think you will 
find the legislation upon the subject will show that, 'Svhereas you 
had formed a constitution that was Republican, and not in conflict 
with the ordinance of '87," therefore you were admitted upon equal 
footing with the original States. The same process in a few years 
was gone through with Indiana, and so with Illinois, and the same 
substantially with Michigan and Wisconsin. 

Not only did that ordinance prevail, but it was constantly looked 
to whenever a step was taken by a new Territory to become a State. 
Congress always turned their attention to it, and in all their move- 
ments upon this subject they traced their course by that ordinance 
of '87. When they admitted new States they advertised them of 
this ordinance as a part of the legislation of the country. They did 
so because they had traced the ordinance of '87 throughout the his- 
tory of this country. Begin with the men of the Revolution, and 
go down for sixty entire years, and until the last scrap of that Terri- 
tory comes into the Union in the form of the State of Wisconsin, 
everything was made to conform to the ordinance of '87, excluding 
slavery from that vast extent of countr^^ 



550 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

I omitted to mention in the right place that the Constitution of 
the United States was in process of being framed when that ordi- 
nance was made by the Congress of the Confederation ; and one of 
the first acts of Congress itself, under the new Constitution itself, 
was to give force to that ordinance by putting power to carry it out 
into the hands of new officers under the Constitution, in the place of 
the old ones, who had been legislated out of existence by the change 
in the government from the Confederation to the Constitution. Not 
only so, but I believe Indiana once or twice, if not Ohio, petitioned 
the General Government for the privilege of suspending that provi- 
sion and allowing them to have slaves, A report made b}' Mr. Ran- 
dolph, of Virginia, himself a slaveholder, was directly against it, and 
the action was to refuse them the privilege of violating the ordi- 
nance of '87. 

This period of history, which I have run over briefly, is, I presume, 
as familiar to most of this assembly as any other part of the his- 
tory of our country. I suppose that few of my hearers are not as 
familiar with that part of history as I am, and I only mention it to 
recall your attention to it at this time. And hence I ask how extra- 
ordinary a thing it is that a man who has occupied a position upon the 
floor of the Senate of the United States, who is now in his third term, 
and who looks to see the government of this whole country fall into 
his own hands, pretending to give a trutlif ul and accurate history of 
the slavery question in this country, should so entirely ignore the 
whole of that portion of our history — the most important of all. Is 
it not a most extraordinar}' spectacle, that a man should stand up 
and ask for any confidence in his statements, who sets out as he does 
with portions of history, calling upon the people to believe that it is 
a true and fair representation, when the leading part and control- 
ling feature of the whole history is carefully suppressed? 

But the mere leaving out is not the most remarkable feature of 
this most remarkable essay. His proposition is to establish that 
the leading men of the Revolution were for his great principle of 
non-intervention by the government in the question of slavery in 
the Territories ; while history shows that they decided in the cases 
actually brought before them in exactly the contrary way, and he 
knows it. Not only did they so decide at that time, but they stuck 
to it during sixty years, through thick and thin, as long as there was 
one of the Revolutionary heroes upon the stage of political action. 
Through their whole course, from first to last, they clung to free- 
dom. And now he asks the community to believe that the men of 
the Revolution were in favor of his great principle, when we have 
the naked history that they themselves dealt with this very subject- 
matter of his principle, and utterly repudiated his principle, acting 
upon a precisely contrary gi'ound. It is as impudent and absurd as 
if a prosecuting attorney should stand up before a jury, and ask 
them to convict A as the murderer of B, while B was walking alive 
before them. 

I say again, if Judge Douglas asserts that the men of the Revolu- 
tion acted upon principles by which, to be consistent with themselves, 
they ought to have adopted his popular sovereignty, then, upon a 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 551 

consideration of his own argument, he had a right to make you 
believe that they understood the principles of government, but mis- 
applied them — that he has arisen to enlighten the world as to the 
just application of this principle. He has a right to try to per- 
suade you that he understands their principles better than they did, 
and therefore he will apply them now, not as they did, but as they 
ought to have done. He has a right to go before the community, and 
try to convince them of this; but he has no right to attempt to im- 

Eose upon any one the belief that these men themselves approved of 
is great principle. There are two ways of establishing a proposi- 
tion. One is by trying to demonstrate it upon reason, and the other 
is, to show that great men in former times have thought so and so, 
and thus to pass it by the weight of pure authority. Now, if Judge 
Douglas will demonstrate somehow that this is popular sovereignty 
— the light of one man to make a slave of another, without any right 
in that other, or any one else, to object, — demonstrate it as Euclid 
demonstrated propositions, — there is no objection. But when he 
comes forward, seeking to carry a principle by bringing to it the 
authority of men who themselves utterly repudiate that principle, I 
ask that he shall not be permitted to do it. 

I see, in the judge's speech here, a short sentence in these words : 
'* Our fathers, when they formed this government under which we 
live, understood this question just as well and even better than we 
do now." That is true ; I stick to that. I will stand by Judge Doug- 
las in that to the bitter end. And now, Judge Douglas, come and 
stand by me, and truthfully show how they acted, understanding it 
better than we do. All I ask of you. Judge Douglas, is to stick to 
the proposition that the men of the Revolution understood this sub- 
ject better than we do now, and with that better understanding they 
acted better than you are trying to act now. 

I wish to say something now in regard to the Dred Scott decision, 
as dealt with by Judge Douglas. In that " memorable debate " be- 
tween Judge Douglas and myself, last year, the judge thought fit to 
commence a process of catechizing me, and at Freeport I answered 
his questions, and propounded some to him. Among others pro- 
pounded to him was one that I have here now. The substance, as I 
remember it, is: "Can the people of a United States Territory, under 
the Dred Scott decision, in any lawful way, against the wish of any 
citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits, prior to 
the formation of a State constitution?" He answered that they 
could lawfully exclude slavery from the United States Territories, 
notwithstanding the Dred Scott decision. There was something 
about that answer that has probably been a trouble to the judge ever 
since. 

The Dred Scott decision expressly gives every citizen of the United 
States a right to carry his slaves into the United States Territories. 
And now there was some inconsistency in saying that the decision 
was right, and saying, too, that the people of the Territory could 
lawfully drive slavery out again. When all the trash, the words, 
the collateral matter, was cleared away from it, — all the chaff was 
fanned out of it, — it was a bare absurdity : no less than that a thing 



552 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

may be lawfully driven away from where it has a lawful right to be. 
Clear it of all the verbiage, and that is the naked truth of his proposi- 
tion — that a thing may be lawfully driven from the place where it has 
a lawful right to stay. Well, it was because the judge could n't help 
seeing this that he has had so much trouble with it ; and what I want 
to ask your especial attention to, just now, is to remind you, if you 
have not noticed the fact, that the judge does not any longer say that 
the people can exclude slavery. He does not say so in the copyright 
essay ; he did not say so in the speech that he made here ; and, so far 
as I know, since his reelection to the Senate, he has never said, as 
he did at Freeport, that the people of the Territories can exclude 
slavery. He desires that you, who wish the Territories to remain 
free, should believe that he stands by that position, but he does not 
say it himself. He escapes, to some extent, the absurd position I have 
stated by changing his language entirely. What he says now is 
something different in language, and we will consider whether it 
is not different in sense too. It is now that the Dred Scott de- 
cision, or rather the Constitution under that decision, does not carry 
slavery into the Territories beyond the power of the people of the 
Territories to control it as other property. He does not say the peo- 
ple can drive it out, but they can control it as other property. The 
language is different ; we should consider whether the sense is dif- 
ferent. Driving a horse out of this lot is too plain a proposition to 
be mistaken about ; it is putting him on the other side of the fence. 
Or it might be a sort of exclusion of him from the lot if you were to 
kill him and let the worms devour him ; but neither of these things 
is the same as " controlling him as other property." That would be 
to feed him, to pamper him, to ride him, to use and abuse him, to 
make the most money out of him, " as other property " ; but, please 
you, what do the men who are in favor of slavery want more than 
this I What do they really want, other than that slaverj'^, being in 
the Territories, shall be controlled as other property ? 

If they want anything else, I do not comprehend it. I ask your 
attention to this, first, for the purpose of pointing out the change of 
ground the judge has made ; and, in the second place, the importance 
of the change — that that change is not such as to give you gentle- 
men who want his popular sovereignty the power to exclude the in- 
stitution or drive it out at all. I know the judge sometimes squints 
at the argument that in controlling it as other property by unfriendly 
legislation they may control it to death, as you might in the case of 
a horse, perhaps, feed him so lightly and ride him so much that he 
would die. But when you come to legislative control, there is some- 
thing more to be attended to. I have no doubt, myself, that if the 
Territories should undertake to control slave property as other prop- 
erty — that is, control it in such a waj'^ that it would be the most 
valuable as property, and make it bear its just proportion in the way 
of burdens as property, — really deal with it as property, — the Su- 
preme Court of the United States will say, " God speed you, and 
amen." But I undertake to give the opinion, at least, that if the 
TeiTitories attempt b}- any direct legislation to drive the man with 
his slave out of the Temtory, or to decide that his slave is free be- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 553 

cause of his being taken in there, or to tax him to such an extent 
that he cannot keep him there, the Supreme Court will unhesitatingly 
decide all such legislatiou unconstitutional, as long as that Supreme 
Court is constructed as the Dred Scott Supreme Court is. The first 
two things they have already decided, except that there is a little 
quibble among lawyers between the words dicta and decision. They 
have already decided that a negro cannot be made free by territorial 
legislation. 

What is that Dred Scott decision? Judge Douglas labors to show 
that it is one thing, while I think it is altogether different. It is a 
long opinion, but it is all embodied in this short statement: "The 
Constitution of the United States forbids Congress to deprive a man 
of his property \vithout due process of law ; the right of property 
in slaves is distinctly and expressly affirmed in that Constitution ; 
therefore if Congress shall undertake to say that a man's slave is no 
longer his slave when he crosses a certain line into a Territory, that 
is depriving him of his property without due process of law, and is 
unconstitutional." There is the whole Dred Scott decision. They 
add that if Congress cannot do so itself, Congress cannot confer any 
power to do so, and hence any effort by the territorial legislature to 
do either of these things is absolutely decided against. It is a fore- 
gone conclusion by that court. 

Now, as to this indirect mode by " unfriendly legislation," all law- 
yers here will readily understand that such a proposition cannot be 
tolerated for a moment, because a legislature cannot indirectly do 
that which it cannot accomplish directly. Then I say any legislation 
to control this property, as property, for its benefit as property, would 
be hailed by this Dred Scott Supreme Court, and fuUy sustained ; 
but any legislation driving slave property out, or destroying it as 
property, directly or indirectly, will most assuredly by that coui't be 
neld unconstitutional. 

Judge Douglas says that if the Constitution carries slavery into 
the Territories, beyond the power of the people of the Territories to 
control it as other property, then it follows logically that every one 
who swears to support the Constitution of the United States must 
give that support to that property which it needs. And if the Con- 
stitution carries slavery into the Territories beyond the power of the 
people to control it as other property, then it also carries it into the 
States, because the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. 
Now, gentlemen, if it were not for my excessive modesty I would 
say that I told that very thing to Judge Douglas quite a year ago. 
This argument is here in print, and if it were not for my modesty, 
as I said, I might call your attention to it. If you read it, you will 
find that I not only made that argument, but made it better than he 
has made it since. 

There is, however, this difference. I say now, and said then, 
there is no sort of question that the Supreme Court has decided that 
it is the right of the slaveholder to take his slave and hold him in 
the Territory ; and, saying this. Judge Douglas himself admits the 
conclusion. He says if that is so, this consequence will follow; and 
because this consequence would foRow, his argument is, the decision 



554 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

cannot therefore be that way — '' that would spoil my popular sov- 
ereii^nty, and it cannot be possible that this great principle has been 
squelched out in this extraordinary way. It might be, if it were not 
for the extraordinary consequences of spoiling my humbug." 

Another feature of the judge's argument about the Dred Scott 
case is an effort to show that that decision deals altogether in dec- 
larations of negatives; that the Constitution does not afifirm anj^- 
thing as expounded by the Dred Scott decision, but it only declares 
a want of power, a total absence of power, in reference to the Ter- 
ritories. It seems to be his purpose to make the whole of that deci- 
sion to result in a mere negative declaration of a want of power in 
Congress to do anything in relation to this matter in the Territories. 
I know the opinion of the judges states that there is a total absence 
of power ; but that is, unfortunately, not all it states ; for the judges 
add that the right of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly 
affirmed in the Constitution. It does not stop at saying that the 
right of property in a slave is recognized in the Constitution, is de- 
clared to exist somewhere in the Constitution, but says it is affirmed 
in the Constitution. Its language is equivalent to saying that it is 
embodied and so woven into that instrument that it cannot be de- 
tached without breaking the Constitution itself, — in a word, it is a 
part of the Constitution. 

Douglas is singularly unfortunate in his effort to make out that 
decision to be altogether negative, when the express language at the 
vital part is that this is distinctly affirmed in the Constitution. I 
think myself, and I repeat it here, that this decision does not merely 
carry slavery into the Territories, but by its logical conclusion it 
carries it into the States in which we live. One provision of that 
Constitution is, that it shall be the supreme law of the land, — I do 
not quote the language, — any constitution or law of any State to 
the contrary notwithstanding. This Dred Scott decision says that 
the right of property in a slave is affirmed in that Constitution which 
is the supreme law of the land, any State constitution or law not- 
withstanding. Then I say that to destroy a thing which is distinctly 
affirmed and supported by the supreme law of the land, even by a 
State constitution or law, is a violation of that supreme law, and 
there is no escape from it. In my judgment there is no avoiding that 
result, save that the American people shall see that State constitu- 
tions are better construed than our Constitution is construed in that 
decision. They must take care that it is more faithfully and truly 
carried out than it is there expounded. 

I must hasten to a conclusion. Near the beginning of my remarks 
I said that this insidious Douglas popular sovereignty is the measure 
that now threatens the purpose of tlie Republican party to prevent 
slavery from being nationalized in the United States. I propose to 
ask your attention for a little while to some propositions in affir- 
mance of that statement. Take it just as it stands, and apply it as a 
principle ; extend and apply that principle elsewhere, and consider 
where it will lead you. I now put this proposition, that Judge Doug- 
las's popular sovereignty applied will reopen the African slave-trade; 
and I will demonstrate it by any variety of ways in which you can 
turn the subject or look at it. 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 555 

The judge says that the people of the Territories have the right, 
by his principle, to have slaves if they want them. Then I say that 
the people in Georgia have the right to buy slaves in Africa if they 
want them, and I defy any man on earth to show any distinction 
between the two things — to show that the one is either more wicked 
or more unlawful; to show, on original principles, that one is better or 
worse than the other ; or to show by the Constitution that one differs 
a whit from the other. He will tell me, doubtless, that there is no 
constitutional provision against people taking slaves into the new 
Territoi'ies, and I tell him that there is equally no constitutional 
provision against buying slaves in Africa. He will tell you that a 
people in the exercise of popular sovereignty ought to do as they 
please about that thing, and have slaves if they want them ; and 
I tell you that the people of Georgia are as much entitled to pop- 
ular sovereignty, and to buy slaves in Africa, if they want them, 
as the people of the Territory are to have slaves if they want them. 
I ask any man, dealing honestly with himself, to point out a 
distinctiouf 

I have recently seen a letter of Judge Douglas's, in which, with- 
out stating that to be the object, he doubtless endeavors to make a 
distinction between the two. He says he is unalterably opposed to 
the repeal of the laws against the African slave-trade. And why ? 
He then seeks to give a reason that would not apply to his popular 
sovereignty in the Territories. What is that reason ? " The abolition 
of the African slave-trade is a compromise of the Constitution." I 
denv it. There is no truth in the proposition that the abolition of 
the African slave-trade is a compromise of the Constitution. No man 
can put his finger on anything in the Constitution, or on the line of 
history, which shows it. It is a mere barren assertion, made simply 
for the purpose of getting up a distinction between the revival of the 
African slave-trade and his " great principle." 

At the time the Constitution of the United States was adopted it 
was expected that the slave-trade would be abolished. I should as- 
sert, and insist upon that, if Judge Douglas denied it. But I know 
that it was equally expected that slavery would be excluded from 
the Territories, and I can show by history that in regard to these 
two things public opinion was exactly alike, while in regard to posi- 
tive action, there was more done in the ordinance of '87 to resist the 
spread of slavery than was ever done to abolish the foreign slave- 
trade. Lest I be misunderstood, I say again that at the time of the 
formation of the Constitution, public expectation was that the slave- 
trade would be abohshed, but no more so than that the spread of 
slavery in the Territories should be restrained. They stand alike, 
except that in the ordinance of '87 there was a mark left by public 
opinion, showing that it was more committed against the spread of 
slavery in the Territories than against the foreign slave-trade. 

Compromise! What word of compromise was tliere about it? Wliy, 
the public sense was then in favor of the abolition of the slave-trade ; 
but there was at the time a very gi'eat commercial interest involved 
in it, and extensive capital in that branch of trade. There were 
doubtless the incipient stages of improvement in the South in the 
way of farming, dependent on the slave-trade, and they made a pro- 



556 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

position to Congress to abolish the trade after allowing it twenty 
years, a sufficient time for the capital and commerce engaged in it to 
be transferred to other channels. They made no provision that it 
should be abolished in twenty years ; I do not doubt that they ex- 
pected it would be ; but they made no bargain about it. The public 
sentiment left no doubt in the minds of any that it would be done 
away. I repeat, there is nothing in the history of those times in 
favoV of that matter being a compromise of the Constitution. It was 
the public expectation at the time, manifested in a thousand ways, 
that the spread of slavery should also be restricted. 

Then I say if this principle is established, that there is no wrong 
in slavery, and whoever wants it has a right to have it ; that it is a 
matter of dollars and cents ; a sort of question as to how they shall 
deal with brutes; that between us and the negro here there is no sort 
of question, but that at the South the question is between the negro 
and the crocodile ; that it is a mere matter of policy; that there is a 
perfect right, according to interest, to do just as you please — when 
this is done, where this doctrine prevails, the miners and sappers will 
have formed public opinion for the slave-trade. They will be ready 
for Jeff Davis and Stephens, and other leaders of that company, to 
sound the bugle for the revival of the slave-trade, for the second 
Dred Scott decision, for the flood of slavery to be poured over the 
free States, while we shall be here tied down and helpless, and run 
over like sheep. 

It is to be a part and parcel of this same idea to say to men who 
want to adhere to the Democratic party, who have always belonged 
to that party, and are only looking about for some excuse to stick to 
it, but nevertheless hate slavery, that Douglas's popular sovereignty 
is as good a way as any to oppose slavery. They allow themselves to 
be persuaded easily, in accordance with their previous dispositions, 
into this belief, that it is about as good a way of opposing slavery 
as any, and we can do that without straining our old party ties or 
breaking up old political associations. We can do so without being 
called negro-worshipers. "We can do that without being subjected 
to the gibes and sneers that are so readily thrown out in place 
of argument where no argument can be found. So let us stick to 
this popular sovereignty — this insidious popular sovereignty. Now 
let me call your attention to one thing that has really happened, 
which shows this gradual and steady debauching of public opinion, 
this course of preparation for the revival of the slave-trade, for the 
territorial slave-code, and the new Dred Scott decision that is to 
carry slavery into the free States. Did you ever, five years ago, 
hear of anybody in the world saying that the negro had no share 
in the Declaration of National Independence; that it did not mean 
negroes at all, and when "aU men" were spoken of negroes were 
not included ? 

I am satisfied that five years ago that proposition was not put 
upon paper by any living being anywhere. I have been unable at 
any time to find a man in an audience who would declare that he had 
ever known of anybody saying so five years ago. But last year there 
was not a " Douglas popular sovereignty" man in Illinois who did not 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABR.\HMI LINCOLN 557 

say it. Is there one in Ohio but declares his fii-m belief that the 
Declaration of Independence did not mean negroes at all ? I do not 
know how this is ; I have not been here much ; but I presume you 
are very much alike everywhere. Then I suppose that all now 
express the belief that the Declaration of Independence never did 
mean negroes. I call upon one of them to say that he said it five 
years ago. 

If you think that now, and did not think it then, the next thing 
that strikes me is to remark that there has been a change wrought 
in you, and a very significant change it is, being no less than chang- 
ing the negro, in your estimation, from the rank of a man to that 
of a brute. They are taking him down, and placing him, when 
spoken of, among reptiles and crocodiles, as Judge Douglas himself 
expresses it. 

Is not this change wrought in your minds a very important 
change? Public opinion in this country is everything. In a na- 
tion like ours this popular sovereignty and squatter sovereignty 
have already wrought a change in tlie public miud to the extent I 
have stated. There is no man in this crowd who can contradict it. 

Now, if you are opposed to slavery honestly, as much as anybody, 
I ask you to note that fact, and the like of which is to follow, to be 
plastered on, layer after layer, until very soon you are prepared to 
deal with the negro everywhere as with the brute. If public senti- 
ment has not been debauched already to this point, a new turn of 
the screw in that direction is all that is wanting; and this is con- 
stantly being done by the teachers of this insidious popular sover- 
eignty. You need but one or two turns further until your minds, 
now ripening under these teachings, will be ready for all "these things, 
and you will receive and support, or submit to, the slave-trade re- 
vived with all its horrors, a slave code enforced in our Territories, 
and anew Dred Scott decision to bring slavery up into the very heart 
of the free North. This, I must say, is but carrying out those words 
prophetically spoken by Mr. Clay many, many years ago, — I believe 
more than thirty years, — when he told an audience that if they would 
repress all tendencies to liberty and ultimate emancipation, they must 
go back to the era of our independence and muzzle the cannon 
which thundered its annual joyous return on the Fourth of July ; 
they must blow out the moral lights around us; they must penetrate 
the human soul, and eradicate the love of liberty; but until they did 
these things, and others eloquently enumerated bj^ him, they could 
not repress all tendencies to ultimate emancipation. 

I ask attention to the fact that in a preeminent degree these popu- 
lar sovereigns are at this work : blowing out the moral lights around 
US; teaching that the negro is no longer a man, but a brute; that the 
Declaration has nothing to do with him; that he ranks vrith the 
crocodile and the reptile; that man, with body and soul, is a inatter 
of dollars and cents. I suggest to this portion of the Ohio Republi- 
cans, or Democrats, if there be any present, the serious consideration 
of this fact, that there is now going on among you a steady process 
of debauching public opinion on this subject. With this, my friends, 
I bid vou adieu. 



558 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



September 17, 1859. — Speech at Cincinnati, Ohio. 

My Fellow-citizens of the State of Ohio : This is the fii-st time in 
my life that I have appeared before an audience in so great a city 
as this. I therefore — though I am no longer a young man — make 
this appearance under some degree of embarrassment. But I have 
found that when one is embarrassed, usually the shortest way to get 
through with it is to quit talking or thinking about it, and go at 
something else. 

I understand that you have had recently with you my verj^ dis- 
tinguished friend, Judge Douglas, of Illinois, and I understand, 
without having had an opportunity (not greatly sought, to be sure) 
of seeing a report of the speech that he made here, that he did me the 
honor to mention my humble name. I suppose that he did so for the 
purpose of making some objection to some sentiment at some time 
expressed by me. I should expect, it is true, that Judge Doug- 
las had reminded you, or informed you, if you had never before 
heard it, that I had once in my life declared it as my opinion that 
this government cannot *' endure permanently half slave and half 
free ; that a house divided against itself cannot stand," and, as I had 
expressed it, I did not expect the house to fall; that I did not expect 
the Union to be dissolved, but that I did expect it would cease to 
be divided ; that it would become all one thing or all the other; that 
either the opposition of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, 
and place it where the public mind would rest in the belief that it 
was in the course of ultimate extinction, or the friends of slavery 
will push it forward until it becomes alike lawful in all the States, 
old or new, free as well as slave. I did, fifteen months ago, express 
that opinion, and upon many occasions Judge Douglas has denounced 
it, and has greatly, intentionally or unintentionally, misrepresented 
my purpose in the expression of that opinion. 

I presume, without having seen a report of his speech, that he did 
so here. I presume that he alluded also to that opinion in different 
language, having been expressed at a subsequent time by Governor 
Seward, of New York, and that he took the two in a lump and de- 
nounced them ; that he tried to point out that there was something 
couched in this opinion which led to the making of an entire uni- 
formity of the local institutions of the various States of the Union, in 
utter disregard of the different States, which in their nature woidd 
seem to reqnii'e a variety of institutions, and a variety of laws con- 
forming to the differences in the nature of the different States. 

Not only so; I presume he insisted that this was a declaration of 
war between the free and slave States — that it was the sounding to 
the onset of continual war between the different States, the slave 
and free States. 

This charge, in this form, was made by Judge Douglas on, I be- 
lieve, the 9th of July, 1858, in Chicago, in my hearing. On the next 
evening, I made some reply to it. I informed him that many of the 
inferences he drew from that expression of mine were altogether 
foreign to any purpose entertained by me, and in so far as he should 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 559 

ascribe tliese inferences to me, as my pnrpose, he was entirely mis- 
taken J aud in so far as he might argue that whatever might be my 
purpose, actions, conforming to m}'- views, would lead to these results, 
he might argue and establish if he could ; but, so far as purposes 
were concerned, he was totally mistaken as to me. 

When I made that reply to him, I told him, on the question 
of declaring war between the different States of the Union, that I 
had not said I did not expect any peace upon this question until 
slavery was exterminated ; that I had only said I expected peace when 
that institution was put where the public mind should rest in the 
belief that it was in course of ultimate extinction ; that I believed, 
from the organization of our government until a very recent period 
of time, the institution had been placed and continued upon such a 
basis ; that we had had comparative peace upon that question 
through a portion of that period of time, only because the public 
mind rested iu that belief in regard to it, and that when we returned 
to that position in relation to that matter, I supposed we should agaiu 
have peace as we previously had. I assured him, as I now assure 
you, that I neither then had, nor have, nor ever had, any purpose in 
any way of interfering with the institution of slavery where it exists. 
I believe we have no power, under the Constitution of the United 
States, or rather under the form of government under which we 
live, to interfere with the institution of slavery, or any other of the 
institutions of our sister States, be they free or slave States. I de- 
clared then, aud I now re-declare, that I have as little inclination 
to interfere with the institution of slavery where it now exists, 
through the instrumentality of the General Government, or any other 
instrumentality, as I believe we have no power to do so. I acciden- 
tally used this expression: I had no purpose of entering into the 
slave States to disturb the institution of slavery'. So, upon the first 
occasion that Judge Douglas got an opportunity to reply to me, he 
passed ])y the whole body of what I had said upon that subject, and 
seized upon the particular expression of mine, that I had no purpose 
of entering into the slave States to disturb the institution of slavery. 
''Oh, no," said he; "he [Lincoln] won't enter into the slave States to 
disturb the institution of slavery ; he is too prudent a man to do 
such a thing as that ; he only means that he will go on to the line 
between the free and slave States, and shoot over at them. This is 
all he means to do. He means to do them all the harm he can, to 
disturb them all he can, in such a way as to keep his own hide in 
perfect safety." 

Well, now, I did not think, at that time, that that was either a very 
dignified or very logical argument; but so it was, and I had to get 
along with it as well as I could. 

It has occurred to me here to-night that if I ever do shoot over 
the line at the people on the other side of the line, into a slave 
State, and propose to do so keeping my skin safe, that I have now 
about the best chance I shall ever have. I should not wonder if 
there are some Kentuckians about this audience; we are close to 
Kentucky; and whether that be so or not, we are on elevated 
ground, and by speaking distinctly I should not wonder if some of 



560 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the Kentuckians would hear me on the other side of the river. For 
that reason I propose to address a portion of what I have to say to 
the Kentuckians. 

I say, then, in the first place, to the Kentuckians, that I am what 
they call, as I understand it, a ''Black Republican." I think slavery 
is wrong, morally and politically. I desire that it should be no fur- 
ther spread in these United States, and I should not object if it 
should gradually terminate in the whole Union. While I say this 
for myself, I say to you Kentuckians that I understand you differ 
radically with me upon this proposition ; that you believe slavery is 
a good thing; that slavery is right; that it ought to be extended 
and perpetuated in this Union. Now, there being this broad differ- 
ence between us, I do not pretend, in addressing myself to you Ken- 
tuckians, to attempt proselyting you ; that would be a vain effort. 
I do not enter upon it. I only propose to try to show you that you 
ought to nominate for the next presidency, at Charleston, my dis- 
tinguished friend, Judge Douglas. In all that there is no real differ- 
ence between you and him; I understand he is as sincerely for you, 
and more wisely for you, than you are for yourselves. I will try to 
demonstrate that proposition. Understand now, I say that I believe 
he is as sincerely for you, and more wisely for you, than you are 
for youi'selves. 

What do you want more than anything else to make successful 
your views of slavery — to advance the outspread of it, and to secure 
and perpetuate the nationality of it? What do you want more than 
anything else 1 What is needed absolutely ? What is indispensable 
to you ? Why, if I may be allowed to answer the question, it is to 
retain a hold upon the North — it is to retain support and strength 
from the free States. If you can get this support and strength from 
the free States, you can succeed. If you do not get this support and 
this strength from the free States, you are in the minority, and you 
are beaten at once. 

If that proposition be admitted, — and it is undeniable, — then the 
next thing I say to you is, that Douglas of all the men in this nation 
is the only man that affords you any hold upon the free States ; that 
no other man can give you any strength in the free States. This 
being so, if you doubt the other branch of the proposition, whether he 
is for you, — whether he is really for you, as I have expressed it, — I 
propose asking your attention for a while to a few facts. 

The issue between you and me, understand, is that I think slavery 
is wrong, and ought not to be outspread, and you think it is right, 
and ought to be extended and perpetuated. I now proceed to try to 
show to you that Douglas is as sincerely for you, and more wisely 
for you, than you are for yourselves. 

In the first place, we know that in a government like this, a govern- 
ment of the people, where the voice of all the men of the country, 
substantially, enters into the administration of the government, what 
lies at the bottom of all of it is public opinion. I lay down the propo- 
sition that Judge Douglas is not only the man that promises you in 
advance a hold upon the North, and support in the North, but that he 
constantly molds public opinion to your ends; that in every possible 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 561 

way he cau, he molds the public opinion of the North to your ends; 
and if there are a few things in which he seems to be against you, — 
a few things which he says that appear to be against you, and a few 
that he forbears to say which you would like to have him say, — you 
ought to remember that the saying of the one, or the forbearing 
to say the other, would lose his hold upon the North, and, by con- 
sequence, would lose his capacity to serve you. 

Upon this subject of molding public opinion, I call your atten- 
tion to the fact — for a well-established fact it is — that the judge 
never says your institution of slavery is wrong : he never says it is 
right, to be sure, but he never says it is wrong. There is not a 
public man in the United States, I believe, with the exception of 
Senator Douglas, who has not, at some time in his life, declared his 
opinion whether the thing is right or wrong; but Senator Douglas 
never declares it is wrong. He leaves himself at perfect liberty to 
do all in youi* favor which he would be hindered from doing if he 
were to declare the thing to be wrong. On the contrary, he takes 
all the chances that he has for inveigling the sentiment of the North, 
opposed to slavery, into your support, by never saying it is right. 
This you ought to set down to his credit. You ought to give him 
full credit for this much, little though it be in comparison to the 
whole which he does for you. 

Some other things I will ask your attention to. He said upon the 
floor of the United States Senate, and he has repeated it, as I under- 
stand, a great many times, that he does not care whether slavery is 
" voted up or voted down." This again shows you, or ought to show 
you, if you would reason upon it, that he does not believe it to be 
wrong; for a man may say, when he sees nothing wrong in a thing, 
that he does not care whether it be voted up or voted down ; but no 
man can logically say that he cares not whether a thing goes up or 
goes down which appears to him to be wrong. You therefore have 
a demonstration in this, that to Judge Douglas's mind your favorite 
institution, which you desire to have spread out and made per- 
petual, is no wrong. 

Another thing he tells you, in a speech made at Memphis, in Ten- 
nessee, shortly after the canvass in Illiuois, last year. He there 
distinctly told the people that there was a " line drawn by the Al- 
mighty across this continent, on the one side of which the soil must 
always be cultivated by slaves " ; that he did not pretend to know 
exactly where that line was, but that there was sucli a line. I want 
to ask your attention to that proposition again — that there is one 
portion of this continent where the Almighty has designed the soil 
shall always be cultivated by slaves ; that its being cultivated by 
slaves at that place is right; that it has the direct sympathy and au- 
thority of the Almighty. Whenever you can get these Northern audi- 
ences to adopt the opinion that slavery is right on the other side of 
the Ohio ; whenever you can get them, in pursuance of Douglas's 
views, to adopt that sentiment, they will very readily make the other 
argument, which is perfectly logical, that that which is right on that 
side of the Ohio cannot be wrong on this, and that if you have that 
property on that side of the Ohio, under the seal and stamp of the 
Vol. L— .m 



562 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Almighty, when by any means it escapes over here, it is wrong to 
have constitutions and laws "to devil" you about it. So Douglas 
is molding the public opinion of the North, first to say that the 
thing is right in your State over the Ohio River, and hence to say 
that that which is right there is not wrong here, and that all laws 
and constitutions here, recognizing it as being wrong, are themselves 
wrong, and ought to be repealed and abrogated. He will tell you, 
men ot' Ohio, that if you choose here to have laws against slavery, it 
is in conformity to the idea that your climate is not suited to it; that 
your climate is not suited to slave labor, and therefore you have 
constitutions and laws against it. 

Let us attend to that argument for a little while, and see if it be 
sound. You do not raise sugar-cane (except the new-fashioned sugar- 
cane, and you won't raise that long), but they do raise it in Louisi- 
ana. You don't raise it in Ohio because you can't raise it profitably, 
because the climate don't suit it. They do raise it in Louisiana be- 
cause there it is profitable. Now Douglas will tell you that is pre- 
cisely the slavery question : that they do have slaves there because 
they are profitable, and you don't have them here because they are 
not profitable. If that is so, then it leads to dealing with the one 
precisely as with the other. Is there, then, anything in the constitu- 
tion or laws of Ohio against raising sugar-cane? Have you found it 
necessary to put any such provision in your law? Surely not ! No 
man desires to raise sugar-cane in Ohio ; but if an 3^ man did desire 
to do so, you would say it was a tyrannical law that forbids his 
doing so; and whenever you shall agree with Douglas, whenever 
your minds are brought to adopt his argument, as surelj' you will 
have reached the conclusion that although slavery is not profitable 
in Ohio, if any man want it, it is wrong to him not to let him have it. 

In this matter Judge Douglas is preparing the public mind for 
you of Kentucky, to make perpetual that good thing in your estima- 
tion, about which you and I differ. 

In this connection let me ask your attention to another thing. 
I believe it is safe to assert that, five years ago, no living man had 
expressed the opinion that the negro had no share in the Declara- 
tion of Independence. Let me state that again : Five years ago no 
living man had expressed the opinion that the negro had no share 
in the Declaration of Independence. If there is in this large audi- 
ence any man who ever knew of that opinion being put upon paper 
as much as five years ago, I wiU be obliged to him now, or at a sub- 
sequent time, to show it. 

If that be true, I wish you then to note the next fact — that within 
the space of five years Senator Douglas, in the argument of this 
question, has got his entire part}', so far as I know, without excep- 
tion, to join in saying that the negro has no share in the Declaration 
of Independence. If there be now in all these United States one 
Douglas man that does not say this, I have been unable upon any 
occasion to scare him up. Now, if none of you said this five years 
ago, and all of you say it now, that is a matter that you Kentuckians 
ought to note. That is a vast change in the Northern public senti- 
ment upon that question. 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEES OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN 563 

Of what tendency is that change ? The tendency of that change 
is to bring the public mind to the conclusion that when men are 
spoken of, the negro is not meant ; that when negroes are spoken of, 
brutes alone are contemplated. That change in public sentiment 
has already degi'aded the black man, in the estimation of Douglas 
and his followers, from the condition of a man of some sort, and 
assigned him to the condition of a brute. Now you Kentuckians 
ought to give Douglas credit for this. That is the largest possible 
stride that can be made in regard to the perpetuation of your good 
thing of slavery. 

In Kentucky, perhaps, — in many of the slave States certainly, — 
you are trying to establish the rightfulness of slavery by reference to 
the Bible. You are trying to show that slavery existed in the Bible 
times by divine ordinance. Now Douglas is wiser than j^ou for 
your own benefit, upon that subject. Douglas knows that whenever 
you establish that slavery was right by the Bible, it will occur that 
that slavery was the slavery of the white man, — of men without ref- 
erence to color, — and he knows very well that you may entertain that 
idea in Kentucky as much as you please, but you will never ^vin any 
Northern support upon it. He makes a wiser argument for you ; he 
makes the argument that the slaveiy of the black man, the slavery 
of the man who has a skin of a different color from your own, is 
right. He thereby brings to your support Northern voters who could 
not for a moment be brought by your own argument of the Bible- 
right of slavery. Will you not give him credit for that? Will you 
not say that in this matter he is more wisely for you than you are 
for yourselves ? 

Now, having established with his entire party this doctrine, — hav- 
ing been entirely successful in that branch of his efforts in your 
behalf, — he is ready for another. 

At this same meeting at Memphis, he declared that in all coji- 
tests between the negro and the white man, he was for the white 
man, but that in all questions between the negro and the crocodile 
he was for the negro. He did not make that declaration accidentally 
at Memphis. He made it a great many times in the canvass in Illi- 
nois last year (though I don't know that it was reported in any of his 
speeches there; but he frequently made it). I believe he repeated it 
at Columbus, and I should not wonder if he repeated it here. It is, 
then, a deliberate way of expressing himself upon that subject. It 
is a matter of mature deliberation with him thus to express himself 
upon that point of his case. It therefore requires some deliberate 
attention. 

The fii'st inference seems to be that if you do not enslave the negro 
you are wronging the white man in some way or other; and that 
whoever is opposed to the negi'O being enslaved is, in some way or 
other, against the white man. Is not that a falsehood ? If there 
was a necessary conflict between the white man and the negro, I 
should be for the white man as much as Judge Douglas; but I say 
there is no such necessary conflict. I say that there is room enough 
for us all to be free, and that it not only does not wrong the white 
man that the negro should be free, but it positively wrongs the 



564 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

mass of the white men that the negro should be enslaved; that the 
mass of white men are really injured by the effects of slave-labor in 
the vicinity of the fields of their own labor. 

But I do not desire to dwell upon this branch of the question more 
than to say that this assumption of his is false, and I do hope that 
that fallacy will not long prevail in the minds of intelligent white 
men. At all events, you ought to thank Judge Douglas for it. It is 
for your benefit it is made. 

The other branch of it is, that in a struggle between the negro and 
the crocodile, he is for the negro. Well, I don't know that there is 
any struggle between the negro and the crocodile, either. I suppose 
that if a crocodile (or, as we old Ohio River boatmen used to call 
them, alligators) should come across a white man, he would kill him 
if he could, and so he would a negro. But what, at last, is this pro- 
position ? I believe that it is a sort of proposition in proportion, 
which may be stated thus: ''As the negro is to the white man, so is 
the crocodile to the negro; and as the negro may rightfully treat the 
crocodile as a beast or reptile, so the white man may rightfully treat 
the negro as a beast or reptile. " That is really the point of all that 
argument of his. 

Now, my brother Kentuckians, who believe in this, you ought to 
thank Judge Douglas for having put that in a much more taking 
way than any of yourselves have done. 

Again, Douglas's great princij^le, "popular sovereignty,'' as he 
calls it, gives you by natural consequence the revival of the slave- 
trade whenever you want it. If you are disposed to question this, 
listen awhile, consider awhile, what I shall advance in support of 
that proposition. 

He says that it is the sacred right of the man who goes into the 
Territories to have slavery if he wants it. Grant that for argu- 
ment's sake. Is it not the sacred right of the man who don't go 
there, equally to buy slaves in Africa, if he wants them 1 Can you 
point out the difference? The man who goes into the Territories of 
Kansas and Nebraska, or any other new Territory, with the sacred 
right of taking a slave there which belongs to him, would certainly 
have no more right to take one there than I would who own no slave, 
but who would desire to buy one and take him there. You will not 
say — you, the friends of Judge Douglas — but that the man who 
does not own a slave, has an equal right to buy one and take him to 
the Territory as the other does! 

I say that Douglas's popular sovereignty, establishing his sacred 
right in the people, if you please, if carried to its logical conclusion, 
gives equally the sacred right to the people of the States or the 
Territories themselves to buy slaves, wherever the.v can buy them 
cheapest; and if any man can show a distinction, I should like to 
hear him try it. If any man can shovv^ how the people of Kansas 
have a better right to slaves because they want them^ than the peo- 
ple of (leorgia have to buy them in Africa, I want him to do it. I 
think it cannot be done. If it is "popular sovereignty" for the 
people to have slaves because they want them, it is popidar sover- 
eignty for them to buy them in Africa, because they desire to do so. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 565 

I know that Douglas has recently made a little effort — not seem- 
ing to notice that he had a different theory — has made an effort to 
get rid of that. He has written a letter, addressed to somebody, I 
believe, who resides in Iowa, declaring his opposition to the repeal of 
the laws that prohibit the African slave-trade. He bases his oppo- 
sition to such repeal upon the ground that these laws are themselves 
one of the compromises of the Constitution of the United States. 
Now it would be very interesting to see Judge Douglas, or any of 
his friends, turn to the Constitution of the United States and point 
out that compromise, to show where there is any compromise in the 
Constitution, or provision in the Constitution, expressed or implied, 
by which the administrators of that Constitution are under any 
obligation to repeal the African slave-trade. I know, or at least J 
think I know, that the fraraers of that Constitution did expect that 
the African slave-trade would be abolished at the end of twenty 
years, to which time their prohibition against its being abolished 
extended. I think there is abundant contemporaneous history to 
show that the framers of the Constitution expected it to be abolished. 
But while they so expected, they gave nothing for that expectation, 
and they put no provision in the Constitution requiring it should be 
so abolished. The migration or importation of such persons as the 
States shall see fit to admit shall not be prohibited, but a certain tax 
might be levied upon such importation. But what was to be done 
after that time f The Constitution is as silent about that as it is 
silent, personally, about myself. There is absolutely nothing in it 
about that subject — there is only the expectation of the framers of 
the Constitution that the slave-trade would be abolished at the end 
of that time, and they expected it would be abolished, owing to 
public sentiment, before that time, and they put that provision in, 
in order that it should not be abolished before that time, for reasons 
which I suppose they thought to be sound ones, but which I will not 
now try to enumerate before you. 

But while they expected the slave-trade would be abolished at 
that time, they expected that the spread of slavery into the new 
Territories should also be restricted. It is as easy to prove that 
the framers of the Constitution of the United States expected that 
slavery should be prohibited from extending into the new Terri- 
tories, as it is to prove that it was expected that the slave-trade 
should be abolished. Both these things were expected. One was 
no more expected than the other, and one was no more a compro- 
mise of the Constitution than the other. There was nothing said in 
the Constitution in regard to the spread of slavery into the Ter- 
ritories. I grant that, but there was something very important said 
about it by the same generation of men in the adoption of the old 
ordinance of '87, through the influence of which you here in Ohio, 
our neighbors in Indiana, we in Illinois, our neighbors in Michigan 
and Wisconsin, are happy, prosperous, teeming millions of free men. 
That generation of men, though not to the full extent members of 
the convention that framed the Constitution, were to some extent 
members of that convention, holding seats at the same time in one 
body and the other, so that if there was any compromise on either 



566 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of these subjects, the strong evidence is that that compromise was in 
favor of the restriction of slavery from the new Territories. 

But Douglas says that he is unalterably opposed to the repeal of 
those laws ; because, in his view, it is a compromise of the Constitu- 
tion. You Kentuckians, no doubt, are somewhat offended with 
that ! You ought not to be ! You ought to be patient ! You ought 
to know that if he said less than that, he would lose the power of 
" lugging " the Northern States to your support. Really, what you 
would push him to do would take from him his entire power to serve 
you. And you ought to remember how long, by precedent. Judge 
Douglas holds himself obliged to stick by compromises. You ought 
to remember that by the time you yourselves think you are ready to 
inaugurate measures for the revival of the African slave-trade, that 
sufficient time will have arrived, by precedent, for Judge Douglas 
to break through that compromise. He says now nothing more 
strong than he said in 1849 when he declared in favor of the Mis- 
souri Compromise — that precisely four years and a quarter after he 
declared that compromise to be a sacred thing, which " no ruthless 
hand would ever dared to touch," he, himself, brought forward the 
measure ruthlessly to destroy it. By a mere calculation of time it 
will only be four years more until he is ready to take back his pro- 
fession about the sacredness of the compromise abolishing the slave- 
trade. Precisely as soon as you are ready to have his services in 
that direction, by fair calculation, you may be sure of having them. 

But you remember and set down to Judge Douglas's debt, or dis- 
credit, that he, last year, said the people of Territories can, in spite 
of the Dred Scott decision, exclude your slaves from those Territo- 
ries; that he declared by " unfriendly legislation" the extension of 
your property into the new Territories may be cut off in the teeth of 
that decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. 

He assumed that position at Freeport, on the 27th of August, 1858. 
He said that the people of the Territories can exclude slavery, in so 
many words. You ought, however, to bear in mind that he has 
never said it since. You may hunt in every speech that he has since 
made, and he has never used that expression once. He has never 
seemed to notice that he is stating his views differently from what he 
did then ; but by some sort of accident, he has always really stated it 
differently. He has always since then declared that *' the Consti- 
tution does not carry slavery into the Territories of the United 
States beyond the power of the people legally to control it, as other 
property." Now there is a difference in the language used upon that 
former occasion and in this latter day. There may or may not be a 
difference in the meaning, but it is worth while considering whether 
there is not also a difference in meaning. 

What is it to exclude? Why, it is to drive it out. It is in some 
way to put it out of the Territory. It is to force it across the line, or 
change its character, so that as property it is out of existence. But 
what is the controlling of it " as other property" ? Is controlling it 
as other property the same thing as destroying it, or driving it away ? 
I should think not. I should think the controlling of it as other 
property would l)e just about what you in Kentuck}^ should want. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 567 

I understand the controlling of property means the controlling of it 
for the benefit of the owner of it. While I have no doubt the Su- 
preme Court of the United States would say " God speed" to any of 
the territorial legislatures that should thus control slave property, 
they would sing quite a different tune if by the pretense of control- 
ling it they were to undertake to pass laws which virtually excluded 
it, and that upon a very well known principle to all lawyers, that 
what a legislature cannot directly do, it cannot do by indirection ; 
that as the legislature has not the power to drive slaves out, they 
have no power by indirection, by tax, or by imposing burdens in any 
way on that property, to effect the same end, and that any attempt to 
do so would be held by the Dred Scott court unconstitutional. 

Douglas is not willing to stand by his first proposition that they 
can exclude it, because we have seen that that proposition amounts 
to nothing more nor less than the naked absurdity that you may law- 
fully drive out that which has a lawful right to remain. He admitted 
at first that the slave might be lawfully taken into the Territories 
under the Constitution of the United States, and yet asserted that he 
might be lawfully driven out. That being the proposition, it is the 
absurdity I have stated. He is not willing to stand in the face of 
that direct, naked, and impudent absurdity ; he has, therefore, modi- 
fied his language into that of being "controlled as other property." 

The Kentuckians don't like this in Douglas ! I will tell you where 
it will go. He now swears by the court. He was once a leading 
man in Illinois to break down a court because it had made a deci- 
sion he did not like. But he now not only swears by the court, the 
courts having got to working for you, but he denounces all men that 
do not swear by the courts as unpatriotic, as bad citizens. When one 
of these acts of unfriendly legislation shall impose such heavy bur- 
dens as to, in effect, destroy property in slaves in a Territory, and 
show plainly enough that there can be no mistake in the purpose of 
the legislature to make them so burdensome, this same Supreme 
Court will decide that law to be unconstitutional, and he will be 
ready to say for your benefit, " I swear by the court; I give it up"; 
and while that is going on he has been getting all his men to swear 
by the courts, and to give it up with him. In this again he serves 
you faithfully, and, as I say, more wisely than you serve yourselves. 

Again, I have alluded in the beginning of these remarks to the fact 
that Judge Douglas has made great complaint of my having expressed 
the opinion that this government "cannot endure permanently half 
slave and half free." He has complained of Seward for using different 
language, and declaring that there is an "irrepressible conflict" be- 
tween the principles of free and slave labor. [A voice : " He says 
it is not original with Seward. That is original with Lincoln."] I 
will attend to that immediately, sir. Since that time, Hickman, of 
Pennsylvania, expressed the same sentiment. He has never de- 
nounced Mr. Hickman. Why? There is a little chance, notwith- 
standing that opinion in the mouth of Hickman, that he may yet be 
a Douglas man. That is the difference. It is not unpatriotic to hold 
that opinion, if a man is a Douglas man. 

But neither I, nor Seward, nor Hickman is entitled to the enviable 



568 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

or unenviable distinction of having first expressed that idea. That 
same idea was expressed by the Richmond " Enquirer " in Virginia, 
in 1856, quite two years before it was expressed by the first of us. 
And while Douglas was pluming himself that in his conflict with my 
humble self, last year, he had " squelched out " that fatal heresy, as he 
delighted to call it, and had suggested that if he only had had a chance 
to be in New York and meet Seward he would have " squelched " it 
there also, it never occurred to him to breathe a word against Pryor. 
I don't think that you can discover that Douglas ever talked of going 
to Virginia to " squelch " out that idea there. No. More than that. 
That same Roger A. Pryor was brought to Washington City and 
made the editor of the ^^ar excellence Douglas paper after making use 
of that expression which, in us, is so unpatriotic and heretical. From 
all this my Kentucky friends may see that this opinion is heretical 
in his view only when it is expressed by men suspected of a desire that 
the country shall all become free, and not when expressed by those 
fairly known to entertain the desire that the whole country shall be- 
come slave. When expressed b}^ that class of men, it is in no wise 
offensive to him. In this again, my friends of Kentucky, you have 
Judge Douglas with you. 

There is another reason why you Southern people ought to nomi- 
nate Douglas at your convention at Charleston. That reason is the 
wonderful capacity of the man ; the power he has of doing what 
would seem to be impossible. Let me call your attention to one of 
these apparently impossible things. 

Douglas had three or four very distinguished men, of the most 
extreme antislavery views of any men in the Republican party, ex- 
pressing their desire for his reelection to the Senate last year. That 
would, of itself, have seemed to be a little wonderful, but that won- 
der is heightened when we see that Wise, of Virginia, a man exactly 
opposed to them, a man who believes in the divine right of slavery, 
was also expressing his desire that Douglas should be reelected; that 
another man that may be said to be kindred to Wise, Mr. Breckin- 
ridge, the Vice-President, and of your own State, was also agreeing 
with the antislavery men in the North that Douglas ought to be 
reelected. Still, to heighten the wonder, a senator from Kentucky, 
whom I have always loved with an affection as tender and endearing 
as I have ever loved any man, who was opposed to the antislavery 
men for reasons which seemed sufficient to him, and equally opposed 
to Wise and Breckinridge, was writing letters into Illinois to secure 
the reelection of Douglas. Now that all these conflicting elements 
should be brought, while at daggers' points with one another, to 
support him, is a feat that is worthy for you to note and consider. It 
is quite probable that each of these classes of men thought, by the 
reelection of Douglas, their peculiar views would gain something: 
it is proba])le that the antislavery men thought their views would 
gain something ; that Wise and Breckinridge thought so too, as re- 
gards their opinions; that Mr. Crittenden thought that his "sdews 
would gain something, although he was opposed to both these other 
men. It is probable that each and all of them thought that they were 
using Douglas, and it is yet an unsolved problem whether he was not 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 569 

using them all. If he was, then it is for you to consider whether that 
power to perform wonders is one for you lightly to throw away. 

There is one other thing that I will say to you in this relation. It 
is but my opinion; I give it to you without a fee. It is my opinion 
that it is for you to take him or be defeated; and that if you do take 
him you may be beaten. You will surely be beaten if you do not 
take him. We, the Republicans and others forming the opposition 
of the country, intend to " stand by our guns," to be patient and firm, 
and in the long run to beat you whether you take him or not. We 
know that before we fciirly beat you, we have to beat you both to- 
gether. We know that " you are all of a feather," and that we have 
to beat you aU together, and we expect to do it. We don't intend to 
be very impatient about it. We mean to be as deliberate and calm 
about it as it is possible to be, but as firm and resolved as it is possi- 
ble for men to be. When we do as we say, beat you, you perhaps 
want to know what we will do with you. 

I will tell you, so far as I am authorized to speak for the opposi- 
tion, what we mean to do with you. We mean to treat you, as near 
as we possibly can, as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison treated 
you. We mean to leave you alone, and in no way to interfere with 
your institution ; to abide by all and every compromise of the Con- 
stitution, and, in a word, coming back to the original proposition, to 
treat you, so far as degenerated men (if we have degenerated) may, 
according to the example of those noble fathers — Washington, 
Jefferson, and Madison. We mean to remember that you are as 
good as we; that there is no difference between us other than the 
difference of ch'cumstances. We mean to recognize and bear in 
mind always that you have as good hearts in your bosoms as other 
people, or as we claim to have, and treat you accordingly. We 
mean to marry your girls when we have a chance —the white ones, 
I mean, and I have the honor to inform you that I once did have a 
chance in that way. 

I have told you what we mean to do. I want to know, now, when 
that thing takes place, what do you mean to do? I often hear it in- 
timated that you mean to divide the Union whenever a Republican 
or anything like it is elected President of the United States. [A 
voice: " That is so."] " That is so," one of them says ; I wonder if 
he is a Kentuckian I [A voice : '' He is a Douglas man."] Well, 
then, I want to know what you are going to do with your half of it? 
Are you going to split the Ohio down through, and push your half 
off a piece! Or are you going to keep it right alongside of us out- 
rageous fellows ? Or are you going to build up a wall some way 
between your country and oui'S, by which that movable property of 
yours can't come over here any more, to the danger of your losing it? 
Do you think you can better yourselves on that subject by leaving 
us here under no obligation whatever to return those specimens of 
your movable property that come hither? You have divided the 
Union because we would not do right with you, as you think, upon 
that subject ; when we cease to be under obligations to do anything 
for you, how much better off do you think you wiU. be? Will you 
make war upon us and kill us all ? Why, gentlemen, I think you are 



570 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

as gallant and as brave men as live ; that you can fight as bravely 
in a good cause, man for man, as any other people living ; that you 
have shown yourselves capable of this upon various occasions ; but 
man for man, you are not better than we are, and there are not so 
many of you as there are of us. You will never make much of a 
hand at whipping us. If we were fewer in numbers than you, I think 
that you could whip us ; if we were equal it would likely be a drawn 
battle ; but being inferior in numbers, you will make nothing by 
attempting to master us. 

But perhaps I have addressed myself as long, or longer, to the 
Kentuckians than I ought to have done, inasmuch as I have said 
that whatever course you take, we intend in the end to beat you. I 
propose to address a few remarks to our friends, by way of discussing 
with them the best means of keeping that promise that I have in 
good faith made. 

It may appear a little episodical for me to mention the topic of 
which I shall speak now. It is a favorite proposition of Douglas's 
that the interference of the General Government, through the ordi- 
nance of '87, or through any other act of the General Government, 
never has made, nor ever can make, a free State; that the ordinance 
of '87 did not make free States of Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois ; that 
these States are free upon his " great principle " of popular sover- 
eignty, because the people of those several States have chosen to 
make them so. At Columbus, and probably here, he undertook to 
compliment the people that they themselves had made the State of 
Ohio free, and that the ordinance of '87 was not entitled in any de- 
gree to divide the honor with him. I have no doubt that the people 
of the State of Ohio did make her free according to their own will 
and judgment; but let the facts be remembered. 

In 1802, I believe, it was you who made your first constitution, 
with the clause prohibiting slavery, and you did it, I suppose, very 
nearly unanimously; but you should bear in mind that you — speak- 
ing of you as one people — that you did so unembarrassed by the 
actual presence of the institution amongst you; that you made it 
a free State, not with the embarrassment upon you of ali-ead}'^ having 
among you many slaves, which, if they had been here, and you had 
sought to make a free State, you would not know what to do with. 
If they had been among you, embarrassing difficulties, most prob- 
ably, would have induced you to tolerate a slave Constitution instead 
of a free one; as, indeed, these very difficulties have constrained every 
people on this continent who have adopted slavery. 

Pray, what was it that made you free ? What kept you free ? Did 
you not find your country free when you came to decide that Ohio 
should be a free State ? It is important to inquire by what reason 
you found it so. Let us take an illustration between the States of 
Ohio and Kentucky. Kentucky is separated by this river Ohio, not 
a mile wide. A portion of Kentucky, by reason of the course of the 
Ohio, is further north than this portion of Ohio in which we now 
stand. Kentucky is entirely covered with slavery — Ohio is entirely 
free from it. What made that difference ? Was it climate ? No ! 
A portion of Kentucky was further north than this portion of Ohio. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 571 

Was it soil ? No ! There is nothing in the soil of the one more 
favorable to slave-labor than the other. It was not climate or soil 
that caused one side of the line to be entirely covered with slavery 
and the other side free of it. What was it 1 Study over it. Tell us, if 
you can, in all the range of conjecture, if there be anything you can 
conceive of that made that difference, other than that there was no 
law of any sort keeping it out of Kentucky, while the ordinance of '87 
kept it out of Ohio. If there is any other reason than this, I con- 
fess that it is wholly beyond my power to conceive of it. This, then, 
I offer to combat the idea that that ordinance has never made any 
State free. 

I don't stop at this illustration. I come to the State of Indiana; 
and what I have said as between Kentucky and Ohio, I repeat as 
between Indiana and Kentucky; it is equally applicable. One addi- 
tional argument is applicable also to Indiana. In her territorial 
condition she more than once petitioned Congress to abrogate the 
ordinance entirely, or at least so far as to suspend its operation for a 
time, in order that they should exercise the "popular sovereignty" 
of having slaves if they wanted them. The men then controlling the 
General Government, imitating the men of the Revolution, refused 
Indiana that privilege. And so we have the evidence that Indiana 
supposed she could have slaves, if it were not for that ordinance ; 
that she besought Congress to put that barrier out of the way; that 
Congress refused to do so, and it all ended at last in Indiana being a 
free State. Tell me not then that the ordinance of '87 had nothing 
to do with making Indiana a free State, when we find some men 
chafing against and only restrained by that barrier. 

Come down again to our State of Illinois. The great Northwest 
Territory, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wiscon- 
sin, was acquired first, I believe, by the British government, in part, 
at least, from the French. Before the establishment of our inde- 
pendence, it became a part of Virginia, enabling Virginia afterward 
to transfer it to the General Government. There were French settle- 
ments in what is now Illinois, and at the same time there were 
French settlements in what is now Missouri — in the tract of country 
that was not purchased till about 1803. In these French settlements 
negro slavery had existed for many years — perhaps more than a 
hundred, if not as much as two hundred, years — at Kaskaskia, in 
Illinois, and at St. Genevieve, or Cape Girardeau, perhaps, in Mis- 
souri. The number of slaves was not very great, but there was about 
the same niimber in each place. They were there when we acquired 
the Territory. Tliere was no effort made to break up the relation 
of master and slave, and even the ordinance of '87 was not so en- 
forced as to destroy that slavery in Illinois ; nor did the ordinance 
apply to Missouri at all. 

What I want to ask your attention to, at this point, is that Illinois 
and Missouri came into the Union about the same time, Illinois in 
the latter part of 1818, and Missouri, after a struggle, I believe, 
some time in 1820. They had been filling up with American people 
about the same period of time, their progress enabling them to 
come into the Union about the same. At the end of that ten years, 



572 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

in which they had been so preparing (for it was about that period of 
time), the number of slaves in Illinois had actually decreased; while 
in Missouri, beginning with very few, at the end of that ten years 
there were about ten thousand. This being so, and it being remem- 
bered that Missouri and Illinois are, to a certain extent, in the same 
parallel of latitude, — that the northern half of Missouri and the 
southern half of Illinois are in the same parallel of latitude, — so 
that climate would have the same effect upon one as upon the other; 
and that in the soil there is no material difference so far as bears 
upon the question of slavery being settled upon one or the other; 
there being none of those natural causes to produce a difference in 
filling them, and j^et there being a broad difference in their fill- 
ing up, we are led again to inquire what was the cause of that 
difference. 

It is most natural to say that in Missouri there was no law to keep 
that country from filling up with slaves, while in Illinois there was 
the ordinance of '87. The ordinance being there, slavery decreased 
during that ten years — the ordinance not being in the other, it in- 
creased from a few to ten thousand. Can anybody doubt the reason 
of the difference ? 

I think all these facts most abundantly prove that my friend 
Judge Douglas's proposition, that the ordinance of '87, or the na- 
tional restriction of slavery, never had a tendency to make a free 
State, is a fallacy — a proposition without the shadow or substance 
of truth about it. 

Douglas sometimes says that all the States (and it is part of that 
same proposition I have been discussing) that have become free, have 
become so upon his "great principle"; that the State of Illinois it- 
self came into the Union as a slave State, and that the people, upon 
the ''great principle" of popular sovereignty, have since made it a 
free State. Allow me but a little while to state to you what facts 
there are to justify him in saying that Illinois came into the Union 
as a slave State. 

I have mentioned to you that there were a few old French slaves 
there. They numbered, I think, one or two hundred. Besides that, 
there had been a territorial law for indenturing black persons. 
Under that law, in violation of the ordinance of '87, but without 
any enforcement of the ordinance to overthrow the system, there 
had been a small number of slaves introduced as indentured per- 
sons. Owing to this, the clause for the prohibition of slavery was 
slightly modified. Instead of running like yours, that neither sla- 
very nor involuntary servitude, except for crime, of which the party 
shall have been duly convicted, should exist in the State, they said 
that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should thereafter be 
introduced, and that the children of indentured servants should be 
born free ; and nothing was said about the few old French slaves. 
Out of this fact, that the clause for prohibiting slavery was modified 
because of the actual presence of it, Douglas asserts again and again 
that Illinois came into the Union as a slave State. How far the facts 
sustain the conclusion that he draws, it is for intelligent and impar- 
tial men to decide. I leave it with you, with these remarks, worthy 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 573 

of being remembered, that that little thing, those few indentured 
servants being there, was of itself sufficient to modify a constitu- 
tion made by a people ardently desiring to have a free constitution ; 
showing the power of the actual presence of the institution of 
slavery to prevent any people, however anxious to make a free State, 
from making it perfectly so. I have been detaining you longer per- 
haps than I ought to do. 

I am in some doubt whether to introduce another topic upon which 
I could talk awhile. [Cries of ''Go on," and '' Give us it."] It is 
this then — Douglas's populai' sovereignty, as a principle, is simply 
this : If one man chooses to make a slave of another man, neither 
that man nor anybody else has a right to object. Apply it to govern- 
ment, as he seeks to apply it, and it is this : If, in a new Territory, 
into which a few people are beginning to enter for the purpose of 
making their homes, they choose to either exclude slavery from their 
limits, or to establish it there, however one or the other may affect 
the persons to be enslaved, or the infinitely greater number of per- 
sons who are afterward to inhabit that Territoiy, or the other mem- 
bers of the family of communities, of which they are but an incipient 
member, or the general head of the family of States as parent of all — 
however their action may affect one or the other of these, there is no 
power or right to interfere. That is Douglas's populai* sovereignty 
applied. Now I think that there is a real popular sovereignty in the 
world. I think a definition of popular sovereignty, in the abstract, 
would be about this — that each man shall do precisely as he pleases 
with himself, and with all those things which exclusively concern 
him. Applied in government, this principle would be, that a general 
government shall do all those things which pertain to it, and all the 
local governments shall do precisely as they please in respect to those 
matters which exclusively concern them. 

Douglas looks upon slavery as so insignificant that the people must 
decide that question for themselves, and yet they are not fit to decide 
who shall be their governor, judge, or secretary, or who shall be any 
of their officers. These are vast national matters, in his estimation; 
but the little matter in his estimation is that of planting slavery there. 
That is purely of local interest, which nobody should be allowed to 
say a word about. 

Labor is the great source from which nearly all, if i]ot all, human 
comforts and necessities are drawn. There is a difference in opinion 
about the elements of labor in society. Some men assume that there 
is a necessary connection between capital and labor, and that con- 
nection draws within it the whole of the labor of the community. 
They assume that nobody works unless capital excites them to work. 
They begin next to consider what is the best way. They say there 
are but two ways — one is to hire men and to allure them to labor by 
their consent; the other is to buy the men and drive them to it, and 
that is slavery. Having assumed that, they proceed to discuss the 
question of whether the laborers themselves are better off in the con- 
dition of slaves oi* of hired laborers, and they usually decide that 
they are better off in the condition of slaves. 

In the first place, I say that the whole thing is a mistake. That 



574 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

there is a certain relation between capital and labor, I admit. That 
it does exist, and rightfully exists, I think is true. That men who 
are industrious and sober and honest in the pursuit of their own in- 
terests should after a while accumulate capital, and after that should 
be allowed to enjoy it in peace, and also if they should choose, when 
they have accumulated it, to use it to save themselves from actual 
labor, and hire other people to labor for them, is right. In doing so, 
they do not wrong the man they employ, for they find men who have 
not their own land to work upon, or shops to work in, and who are 
benefited by working for others — hired laborers, receiving their cap- 
ital for it. Thus a few men that own capital hire a few others, and 
these establish the relation of capital and labor rightfully — a rela- 
tion of which I make no complaint. But I insist that that relation, 
after all, does not embrace more than one eighth of the labor of the 
country. 

[ The speaker proceeded to argue that the hired laborer, with his 
ability to become an employer, must have every precedence over him 
who labors under the inducement of force. He continued :] 

I have taken upon myself, in the name of some of you, to say that 
we expect upon these principles to ultimately beat them. In order 
to do so, I think we want and must have a national policy in regard 
to the institution of slavery that acknowledges and deals with that 
institution as being wrong. Whoever desires the prevention of the 
spread of slavei-y and the nationalization of that institution, yields 
all when he yields to any policy that either recognizes slavery as 
being right, or as being an indifferent thing. Nothing will make 
you successful but setting up a policy which shaU treat the thing as 
being wrong. When I say this, I do not mean to say that this Gen- 
eral Government is charged with the duty of redressing or prevent- 
ing all the wrongs in the world ; but I do think that it is charged 
with preventing and redressing all wrongs which are wrongs to it- 
self. This government is expressly charged with the duty of pro- 
viding for the general welfare. We believe that the spreading out 
and perpetuity of the institution of slavery impairs the general wel- 
fare. We believe — nay, we know — that that is the only thing that 
has ever threatened the perpetuity of the Union itself. The only 
thing which has ever menaced the destruction of the government 
uuder which we live, is this very thing. To repress this thing, we 
think, is providing for the general welfare. Our friends in Ken- 
tucky differ from us. We need not make our argument for them ; 
but we who think it is wrong in all its relations, or in some of them 
at least, must decide as to our own actions, and our own course, upon 
our own judgment. 

I say that we must not interfere with the institution of slavery in 
the States where it exists, because the Constitution forbids it, and the 
general welfare does not require us to do so. We must not withhold 
an efficient fugitive-slave law, because the Constitution requires us, 
as I understand it, not to withhold such a law. But we must pre- 
vent the outspreading of the institution, because neither the Consti- 
tution nor general welfare requires us to extend it. We must prevent 
the revival of the African slave-trade, and the enacting by Congress 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 575 

of a territorial slave-code. We must prevent each of these things be- 
ing done by either congresses or courts. The people of these United 
States are the rightful masters of both congresses and courts, not to 
overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert 
the Constitution. 

To do these things we must employ instrumentalities. We must 
hold conventions ; we must adopt platforms, if we conform to ordi- 
nary custom ; we must nominate candidates; and we must carry elec- 
tions. In all these things, I think that we ought to keep in view our 
real purpose, and in none do anything that stands adverse to our 
purpose. If we shall adopt a platform that fails to recognize or ex- 
press our purpose, or elect a man that declares himself inimical to 
our purpose, we not only take nothing by our success, but we tacitly 
admit that we act upon no other principle than a desire to have " the 
loaves and fishes," by which, in the end, our apparent success is really 
an injury to us. 

I know that it is very desirable with me, as with everybody else, 
that all the elements of the Opposition shall unite in the next presi- 
dential election, and in all future time. I am anxious that that should 
be, but there are things seriously to be considered in relation to that 
matter. If the terms can be arranged, I am in favor of the union. 
But suppose we shall take up some man, and put him upon one end 
or the other of the ticket, who declares himself against us in regard 
to the prevention of the spread of slavery, who turns up his nose 
and says he is tired of hearing anything more about it, who is more 
against us than against the enemy — what will be the issue ? Why, 
he will get no slave States after all — he has tried that already until 
being beat is the rule for him. If we nominate him upon that 
ground, he will not carry a slave State, and not only so, but that 
portion of our men who are high strung upon the principle we really 
fight for will not go for him, and he won't get a single electoral vote 
anywhere, except, perhaps, in the State of Maryland. There is no 
Tise in saying to us that we are stubborn and obstinate because we 
won't do some such thing as this. We cannot do it. We cannot get 
our men to vote it. I speak by the card, that we cannot give the 
State of Illinois in such case by fifty thousand. We would be flatter 
down than the '' Negro Democracy" themselves have the heart to 
wish to see us. 

After saying this much, let me say a little on the other side. There 
are plenty of men in the slave States that are altogether good 
enough for me to be either President or Vice-President, provided 
they will profess their sympathy with our purpose, and will place 
themselves on such ground that our men, upon principle, can vote for 
them. There are scores of them — good men in their character for in- 
telligence, and talent, and integrity. If such an one will place himself 
upon the right ground, I am for his occupying one place upon the 
next Republican or Opposition ticket. I will heartily go for him. 
But unless he does so place himself, I think it is a matter of perfect 
nonsense to attempt to bring about a union upon any other basis ; 
that if a union be made, the elements will scatter so that there can be 
no success for such a ticket, nor anything like success. The good old 



576 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

raaxiias of the Bible are applicable, and truly applicable, to human 
affairs, and in this, as in other things, we may say here that he who 
is not for us is against us ; he who gathereth not with us scattereth. 
I should be glad to have some of the many good, and able, and noble 
men of the South to place themselves where we can confer upon them 
the high honor of an election upon one or the other end of our ticket. 
It would do my soul good to do that thing. It would enable us to 
teach them that, inasmuch as we select one of their own number to 
carry out our principles, Ave are free from the charge that we mean 
more than we say. 

But, my friends, I have detained you much longer than I expected 
to do. I believe I may allow myself the compliment to say that you 
have stayed and heard me with great patience, for which I return 
you my most sincere thanks. 



September 30, 1859. — Annual Address before the Wisconsin 
State Agricultural Society, at Milwaukee, Wis. 

Members of the Agricultural Society and Citizens of Wisconsin: 
Agricultural f ah*s are becoming an institution of the country. They 
are useful in more ways than one. They bring us together, and 
thereby make us better acquainted and better friends than we other- 
wise would be. From the first appearance of man upon the earth 
down to very recent times, the words "stranger" and "enemy" were 
quite or almost synonymous. Long after civilized nations had de- 
fined robbery and murder as high crimes, and had affixed severe 
punishments to them, when practised among and upon their own 
people respectively, it was deemed no offense, but even meritorious, 
to rob and murder and enslave strangers, whether as nations or as 
individuals. Even yet, this has not totally disappeared. The man 
of the highest moral cultivation, in spite of all which abstract prin- 
ciple can do, likes him whom he does know much better than him 
whom he does not know. To correct the evils, great and small, which 
spring from want of sympathy and from positive enmity among 
strangers, as nations or as individuals, is one of the highest func- 
tions of civilization. To this end our agricultural fairs contribute 
in no small degree. They render more pleasant, and more strong, and 
more durable the bond of social and political union among us. 
Again, if, as Pope declares, "happiness is our being's end and aim," 
our fairs contribute much to that end and aim, as occasions of 
recreatioii, as holidays. Constituted as man is, he has positive need 
of occasional recreation, and whatever can give him this associated 
with virtue and advantage, and free from vice and disadvantage, 
is a positive good. Such recreation our fairs afford. They are a 
present pleasure, to be followed by no pain as a consequence; they 
are a present pleasure, making the future more pleasant. 

But the chief use of agricultural fairs is to aid in improving the 
great calling of agriculture in all its departments and minute divi- 
sions; to make mutual exchange of agricultural discovery, informa- 
tion, and knowledge ; so that, at the end, all may know everything 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 577 

which may have been known to but one or to but few, at the begin- 
ning ; to bring together especially all which is supposed to be not 
generally known because of recent discovery or invention. 

And not only to bring together and to impart all which has been 
accidentall}^ discovered and invented upon ordinary motive, but by 
exciting emulation for premiums, and for the pride and honor of suc- 
cess, — of triumph, iu some sort, — to stimulate that discovery and 
invention into extraordinary activity. In this these fairs are kin- 
dred to the patent clause in the Constitution of the United States, 
and to the department and practical system based upon that clause. 

One feature, I believe, of every fair is a regular address. The 
Agricultural Society of the young, prosperous, and soon to be great 
State of Wisconsin has done me the high honor of selecting me to 
make that address upon this occasion — an honor for which I make 
my profound and grateful acknowledgment. 

I presume I am not expected to employ the time assigned me in 
the mere flattery of the farmers as a class. My opinion of them is 
that, in proportion to numbers, they are neither better nor worse 
than other people. In the nature of things they are more numerous 
than any other class ; and I believe there really are more attempts 
at flattering them than any other, the reason of which I cannot per- 
ceive, unless it be that they can cast more votes than any other. On 
reflection, I am not quite sure that there is not cause of suspicion 
against you iu selecting me, in some sort a politician and in no 
sort a farmer, to address you. 

But farmers being the most numerous class, it follows that their 
interest is the largest interest. It also follows that that interest is 
most worthy of all to be cherished and cultivated — that if there be 
inevitable conflict between that interest and any other, that other 
should yield. 

Again, I suppose it is not expected of me to impart to you much 
specific information on agriculture. You have no reason to believe, 
and do not believe, that I possess it ; if that were what you seek in 
this address, any one of your own number or class would be more 
able to furnish it. You, perhaps, do expect me to give some general 
interest to the occasion, and to make some general suggestions on 
practical matters. I shall attempt nothing more. And in such sug- 
gestions by me, quite likely very little wiU be new to you, and a large 
part of the rest will be possibly already known to be erroneous. 

My first suggestion is an inquiry as to the effect of greater 
thoroughness in aU the departments of agriculture than now pre- 
vails in the Northwest — perhaps I might say in America. To speak 
entirely within bounds, it is known that fifty bushels of wheat, or one 
hundred bushels of Indian corn, can be produced from an acre. Less 
than a year ago I saw it stated that a man, by extraordinary care and 
labor, had produced of wheat what was equal to two hundred bushels 
from an acre. But take fifty of wheat, and one hundred of corn, to 
be the possibility, and compare it with the actual crops of the country. 
Many years ago I saw it stated, in a patent-office report, that eighteen 
bushels was the average crop throughout the United States; and 
this year an intelligent farmer of Illinois assured me that he did not 
Vol. I.— 37. 



578 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

believe the land harvested in that State this season had yielded more 
than an average of eight bushels to the acre ; much was cut, and then 
abandoned as not worth threshing, and much was abandoned as not 
worth cutting. As to Indian corn, and indeed, most other crops, the 
case has not been much better. For the last four years I do not be- 
lieve the ground planted with corn in Illinois has produced an av- 
erage of twenty bushels to the acre. It is true that heretofore we 
have had better crops with no better cultivation, but I believe it is 
also true that the soil has never been pushed up to one half of its 
capacity. 

What would be the effect upon the farming interest to push the 
soil up to something near its full capacity ? Unquestionably it will 
take more labor to produce fifty bushels from an acre than it will to 
produce ten bushels from the same acre; but will it take more labor 
to produce fifty bushels from one acre than from five ? Unquestion- 
ably thorough cultivation will require more labor to the acre ; but 
will it require more to the bushel I If it should require just as much 
to the bushel, there are some probable, and several certain, advan- 
tages in favor of the thorough practice. It is probable it would de- 
velop those unknown causes which of late years have cut down our 
crops below their former average. It is almost certain, I think, that 
by deeper plowing, analysis of the soils, experiments with manures 
and varieties of seeds, observance of seasons, and the like, these causes 
would be discovered and remedied. It is certain that thorough culti- 
vation would spare half, or more than half, the cost of land, simply 
because the same product would be got from half, or from less than 
half, the quantity of land. This proposition is self-evident, and can 
be made no plainer by repetitions or illustrations. The cost of land 
is a great item, even in new countries, and it constantly grows greater 
and greater, in comparison with other items, as the country grows 
older. 

It also would spare the making and maintaining of inclosures for the 
same, whether these inclosures should be hedges, ditches, or fences. 
This again is a heavy item — heavy at first, and heavy in its continual 
demand for repairs. I remember once being greatly astonished by 
an apparently authentic exhibition of the proportion the cost of an 
inclosure bears to all the other expenses of the fai'mer, though I can- 
not remember exactly what that proportion was. Any farmer, if he 
will, can ascertain it in his own case for himself. 

Again, a great amount of locomotion is spared by thorough culti- 
vation. Take fifty bushels of wheat ready for harvest, standing 
upon a single acre, and it can be harvested in any of the known 
ways with less than half the labor which would be required if it 
were spread over five acres. This would be true if cut by the old 
hand-sickle ; true, to a greater extent, if by the scythe and cradle ; 
and to a still greater extent, if by the machines now in use. These 
machines are chiefly valuable as a means of substituting animal- 
power for the power of men in this branch of farm-work. In the 
highest degree of perfection yet reached in applying the horse-power 
to harvesting, fully nine tenths of the power is expended by the 
animal in carrying himself and dragging the machine over the field, 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 579 

leaving certainly not more than one tenth to be applied directly to 
the only end of the whole operation— the gathering in of the grain, 
and clipping of the straw. When grain is very thin on the ground, 
it is always more or less intermingled with weeds, chess, and the like, 
and a large part of the power is expended in cutting these. It is 
plain that when the crop is very thick upon the ground, a larger 
proportion of the power is directly applied to gathering in and cut- 
ting it ; and the smaller to that which is totally useless as an end. 
And what I have said of harvesting is true in a greater or less de- 
gree of mowing, plowing, gathering in of crops generally, and in- 
deed of almost all farm- work. 

The effect of thorough cultivation upon the farmer's own mind, 
and in reaction through his mind back upon his business, is perhaps 
quite equal to any other of its effects. Every man is proud of what 
he does well, and no man is proud of that he does not well. With 
the former his heart is in his work, and he will do twice as much of it 
with less fatigue ; the latter he performs a little imperfectly, looks at 
it in disgust, turns from it, and imagines himself exceedingly tired — 
the little he has done comes to nothing for want of finishing. 

The man who produces a good full crop will scarcely ever let any 
part of it go to waste ; he will keep up the inclosure about it, and 
allow neither man nor beast to trespass upon it ; he will gather it in 
due season, and store it in perfect security. Thus he labors with 
satisfaction, and saves himself the whole fruit of his labor. The 
other, starting with no purpose for a full crop, labors less, and with 
less satisfaction, allows his fences to fall, and cattle to trespass, 
gathers not in due season, or not at all. Thus the labor he has per- 
formed is wasted away, little by little, till in the end he derives 
scarcely anything from it. 

The ambition for broad acres leads to poor farming, even with 
men of energy. I scarcely ever knew a mammoth farm to sustain 
itself, much less to return a profit upon the outlay. I have more 
than once known a man to spend a respectable fortune upon one, 
fail, and leave it, and then some man of modest aims get a small 
fraction of the ground, and make a good living upon it. Mammoth 
farms are like tools or weapons which are too heavy to be handled ; 
ere long they are thrown aside at a great loss. 

The successful application of steam-power to farm-work is a desid- 
eratum — especially a steam-plow. It is not enough that a machine 
operated by steam will really plow. To be successful, it must, all 
things considered, plow better than can be done with animal-power. 
It must do all the work as well, and cheaper; or more rapidly, so as 
to get through more perfectly in season ; or in some way afford an 
advantage over plowing with animals, else it is no success. I have 
never seen a machine intended for a steam-plow. Much praise and 
admiration are bestowed upon some of them, and they may be, for 
aught I know, already successful; but I have not perceived the 
demonstration of it. I have thought a good deal, in an abstract 
way, about a steam-plow. That one which shall be so contrived as 
to apply the larger proportion of its power to the cutting and turn- 
ing the soil, and the smallest, to the moving itself over the field, 



580 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

will be the best one. A very small stationary-engine would draw a 
large gang of plows through the ground from a short distance to 
itself ; but when it is not stationary, but has to move along like 
a horse, dragging the plows after it, it must have additional power 
to carry itself; and the difficulty grows by what is intended to over- 
come it ; for what adds power also adds size and weight to the ma- 
chine, thus increasing again the demand for power. Suppose you 
construct the machine so as to cut a succession of short furrows, 
say a rod in length, transversely to the course the machine is loco- 
moting, something like the shuttle in weaving. In such case the 
whole machine would move north only the width of a furrow, while 
in length the furrow would be a rod from east to west. In such 
case a very large proportion of the power would be applied to the 
actual plowing. But in this, too^ there would be difficulty, which 
would be the getting of the plow into and out of the ground, at the 
end of all these short furrows. 

I believe, however, ingenious men will, if they have not already, 
overcome the difficulty I have suggested. But there is still another, 
about which I am less sanguine. It is the supply of fuel, and espe- 
cially water, to make steam. Such supply is clearly practicable; 
but can the expense of it be borne? Steamboats live upon the 
water, and find their fuel at stated places. Steam-mills and other 
stationary steam-machinery have their stationary supplies of fuel 
and water. Railroad-locomotives have their regular wood and wa- 
ter stations. But the steam-plow is less fortunate. It does not live 
upon the water, and if it be once at a water-station, it will work 
away from it, and when it gets away cannot return without leav- 
ing its work, at a great expense of its time and strength. It will 
occur that a wagon-and-horse team might be employed to supply it 
with fuel and water ; but this, too, is expensive ; and the question 
recurs, "Can the expense be borne?" When this is added to all 
other expenses, will not plowing cost more than in the old way? 

It is to be hoped that the steam-plow will be finally successful, 
and if it shall be, "thorough cultivation" — putting the soil to the 
top of its capacity, producing the largest crop possible from a given 
quantity of ground — will be most favorable for it. Doing a large 
amount of work upon a small quantity of ground, it will be as neaiiy 
as possible stationary while working, and as free as possible from 
locomotion, thus expending its strength as much as possible upon 
its work, and as little as possible in traveling. Our thanks, and 
something more substantial than thanks, are due to every man en- 
gaged in the effort to produce a successful steam-plow. Even the 
unsuccessful will bring something to light which, in the hands of 
others, will contribute to the final success. I have not pointed out 
difficulties in order to discourage, but in order that, being seen, they 
may be the more readily overcome. 

The world is agreed that labor is the source from which human 
wants are mainly supplied. There is no dirpnte upon this point. 
From this point, however, men immediately diverge. Much disputa- 
tion is maintained as to the best way of applying and controlling 
the labor element. By some it is assumed that labor is available 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEBS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 581 

only in connection with capital — that nobody labors, unless some- 
body else owning capital, somehow, by the use of it, induces him to 
do it. Having assumed this, they proceed to consider whether it is 
best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work 
by their o^vn consent, or buy them, and drive them to it, without 
theii* consent. Having proceeded so far, they naturally conclude 
that all laborers are naturally either hired laborers or slaves. They 
further assume that whoever is once a hired laborer, is fatally fixed 
in that condition for life ; and thence again, that his condition is as 
bad as, or worse than, that of a slave. This is the " mud-sill " theory. 
But another class of reasoners hold the opinion that there is no such 
relation between capital and labor as assumed ; that there is no 
such thing as a free man being fatally fixed for life in the condition 
of a hired laborer; that both these assumptions are false, and all in- 
ferences from them groundless. They hold that labor is prior to, and 
independent of, capital ; that, in fact, capital is the fruit of labor, and 
could never have existed if labor had not first existed ; that labor can 
exist without capital, but that capital could never have existed ^^'ith- 
out labor. Hence they hold that labor is the superior — greatly the 
superior — of capital. 

They do not deny that there is, and probably always will be, a re- 
lation between labor and capital. The error, as they hold, is in assum- 
ing that the whole labor of the world exists within that relation. A 
few men own capital; and that few avoid labor themselves, and with 
their capital hii*e or buy another few to labor for them. A large 
majority belong to neither class — neither work for others, nor have 
others working for them. Even in all our slave States except South 
Carolina, a majority of the whole people of all colors are neither 
slaves nor masters. In these free States, a large majority are neither 
hirers nor hired. Men, with their families — wives, sons, and daughters 
— work for themselves, on their farms, in their houses, and in their 
shops, taking the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors 
of capital on the one hand, nor of hirelings or slaves on the other. 
It is not forgotten that a considerable number of persons mingle 
their own labor with capital — that is, labor with their own hands, 
and also buy slaves or hire free men to labor for them ; but this is 
only a mixed, and not a distinct, class. No principle stated is dis- 
turbed by the existence of this mixed class. Again, as has already 
been said, the opponents of the "mud-sill" theory insist that there 
is not, of necessity, any such thing as the free hired laborer be- 
ing fixed to that condition for life. There is demonstration for 
saying this. Many independent men in this assembly doubtless a 
few years ago were hired laborers. And their case is almost, if not 
quite, the general rule. 

The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages 
awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, 
then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires 
another new beginner to help him. This, say its advocates, is free 
labor — the just, and generous, and prosperous system, which opens 
the way for all, gives hope to all, and energy, and progress, and 
improvement of condition to all. If any continue through life 



582 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

in the condition of the hired laborer, it is not the fault of the system, 
but because of either a dependent nature which prefers it, or im- 
providence, folly, or singular misfortune. I have said this much 
about the elements of labor generally, as introductory to the consid- 
eration of a new phase which that element is in process of assuming. 
The old general rule was that educated people did not perform man- 
ual labor. They managed to eat their bread, leaving the toil of 
producing it to the uneducated. This was not an insupportable evil 
to the working bees, so long as the class of drones remained very small. 
But now, especially in these free States, nearly all are educated — 
quite too nearly all to leave the labor of the uneducated in any wise 
adequate to the support of the whole. It follows from this that 
henceforth educated people must labor. Otherwise, education itself 
would become a positive and intolerable evil. No country can sus- 
tain in idleness more than a small percentage of its numbers. The 
great majority must labor at something productive. From these 
premises the problem springs, ''How can labor and education be 
the most satisfactorily combined?" 

By the " mud-sill " theory it is assumed that labor and education 
are incompatible, and any practical combination of them impossible. 
According to that theory, a blind horse upon a tread-mill is a perfect 
illustration of what a laborer should be — all the better for being 
blind, that he could not kick understandingly. According to that 
theory, the education of laborers is not only useless but pernicious 
and dangerous. In fact, it is, in some sort, deemed a misfortune 
that laborers should have heads at all. Those same heads are re- 
garded as explosive materials, only to be safely kept in damp places, 
as far as possible from that peculiar sort of fire which ignites them. 
A Yankee who could invent a strong-handed man without a head 
would receive the everlasting gratitude of the "mud-sill" advocates. 

But free labor says, " No." Free labor argues that as the Author 
of man makes every individual with one head and one pair of hands, 
it was probably intended that heads and hands should cooperate as 
friends, and that that particular head should direct and control that 
pair of hands. As each man has one mouth to be fed, and one pair 
of hands to furnish food, it was probably intended that that particu- 
lar pair of hands should feed that particular mouth — that each head 
is the natural guardian, director, and protector of the hands and 
mouth inseparably connected with it ; and that being so, every head 
should be cultivated and improved by whatever will add to its 
capacity for performing its charge. In one word, fi*ee labor insists 
on universal education. 

I have so far stated the opposite theories of " mud-sill " and " free 
labor," without declaring any preference of my own between them. 
On an occasion like this, I ought not to declare any. I suppose, how- 
ever, I shall not be mistaken in assuming as a fact that the people of 
Wisconsin prefer free labor, with its natural companion, education. 

This leads to the further reflection that no other human occupation 
opens so wide a field for the profitable and agreeable combination of 
labor with cultivated thought, as agriculture. I know nothing so 
pleasant to the mind as the discovery of anything that is at once new 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABEAHAM LINCOLN 583 

and valuable — nothing that so lightens and sweetens toil as the 
hopeful pursuit of such discovery. And how vast and how varied a 
field is agriculture for such discovery ! The mind, already trained 
to thought in the country school, or higher school, cannot fail to find 
there an exhaustless source of enjoyment. Every blade of grass is 
a study; and to produce two where there was but one is both a 
profit and a pleasure. And not grass alone, but soils, seeds, and 
seasons — hedges, ditches, and fences — draining, droughts, and irri- 
gation — plowing, hoeing, and harrowing — reaping, mowing, and 
threshing — saving crops, pests of crops, diseases of crops, and what 
will prevent or cure them — implements, utensils, and machines, their 
relative merits, and how to improve them — hogs, horses, and cattle — 
sheep, goats, and poultry — trees, shrubs, fruits, plants, and flowers 
— the thousand things of which these are specimens — each a world 
of study within itself. 

In all this, book-learning is available. A capacity and taste for 
reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by 
others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved prob- 
lems. And not only so : it gives a relish and facility for successfully 
pursuing the unsolved ones. The rudiments of science are available, 
and highly available. Some knowledge of botany assists in dealing 
with the vegetable world — with all growing crops. Chemistry as- 
sists in the analysis of soils, selection and application of manures, 
and in numerous other ways. The mechanical branches of natural 
philosophy are ready help in almost everything, but especially in 
reference to implements and machinery. 

The thought recurs that education — cultivated thought — can 
best be combined with agricultural labor, or any labor, on the prin- 
ciple of thorough work; that careless, half performed, slovenly work 
makes no place for such combination; and thorough work, again, 
renders suflQcient the smallest quantity of groimd to each man ; and 
this, again, conforms to what must occur in a world less inclined to 
wars and more devoted to the arts of peace than heretofore. Popu- 
lation must increase rapidly, more rapidly than in former times, and 
ere long the most valuable of all arts will be the art of deriving a 
comfortable subsistence from the smallest area of soil. No com- 
munity whose every member possesses this art, can ever be the victim 
of oppression in any of its forms. Such community will be alike 
independent of crowned kings, money kings, and land kings. 

But, according to your program, the awarding of premiums 
awaits the closing of this address. Considering the deep interest 
necessarily pertaining to that performance, it would be no wonder 
if I am already heard with some impatience. I will detain you but 
a moment longer. Some of you will be successful, and such will need 
but little philosophy to take them home in cheerful spirits; others 
will be disappointed, and wiU be in a less happy mood. To such 
let it be said, " Lay it not too much to heart." Let them adopt the 
maxim, " Better luck next time," and then by renewed exertion make 
that better luck for themselves. 

And by the successful and unsuccessful let it be remembered that 
while occasions like the present bring their sober and durable bene- 



584 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

fits, the exultations and mortifications of them are but temporary; 
that the victor will soon be vanquished if he relax in his exertion ; 
and that the vanquished this year may be victor the next, in spite of 
all competition. 

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent 
him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and 
appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the 
words, "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! 
How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths 
of affliction! ''And this, too, shall pass away," And yet, let us 
hope, it is not quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by the best 
cultivation of the physical world beneath and around us, and the 
intellectual and moral world within us, we shall secure an individual, 
social, and political prosperitj^ and happiness, whose course shall be 
onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not 
pass away. 

October 11, 1859.— Letter to Edward Wallace. 

Clinton, October 11, 1859. 
Dr. Edward Wallace. 

My dear Sir : I am here just now attending court. Yesterday, 
before I left Springfield, your brother. Dr. William S. Wallace, 
showed me a letter of yours, in which you kindly mention my name, 
inquire for my tariff views, and suggest the propriety of my writing 
a letter upon the subject. I was an old Henry Clay-Tai-iff-Whig. 
In old times I made more speeches on that subject than any other. 

I have not since changed my views. I believe yet, if we could have 
a moderate, carefully adjusted protective tariff, so far acquiesced in 
as not to be a perpetual subject of political strife, squabbles, changes, 
and uncertainties, it would be better for us. Still it is my opinion 
that just now the revival of that question will not advance the cause 
itself, or the man who revives it. 

I have not thought much on the subject recently, but my general 
impression is that the necessity for a protective tariff will ere long 
force its old opponents to take it up; and then its old friends can 
join in and establish it on a more firm and durable basis. We, the 
Old Whigs, have been entirely beaten out on the tariff question, and 
we shall not be able to reestablish the policy until the absence of it 
shall have demonstrated the necessity for it in the minds of men here- 
tofore opposed to it. With this view, I should prefer to not now 
write a public letter on the subject. I therefore wish this to be con- 
sidered confidential. I shall be very glad to receive a letter from you. 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 

November 1, 1859.— Letter to W. E. Frazer. 

Springfield, Illinois, November 1, 1859. 
W. E. Frazer, Esq. 

Dear Sir: Yours of the 24th ult. was forwarded to me from 
Chicago. It certainly is important to secure Pennsylvania for the 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 585 

Republicans in the next presidential contest, and not unimportant 
to also secure Illinois. As to the ticket you name, I shall be heartily 
for it after it shall have been fairly nominated by a Republican na- 
tional convention ; and I cannot be committed to it before. For my 
single self, I have enlisted for the permanent success of the Repub- 
lican cause ; and for this object I shall labor faithfully in the ranks, 
unless, as I think not probable, the judgment of the party shall as- 
sign me a different position. If the Republicans of the great State 
of Pennsylvania shall present Mr. Cameron as their candidate for 
the presidency, such an indorsement for his fitness for the place 
could scarcely be deemed insufficient. Still, as I would not like the 
public to know, so I would not like myself to know, I had entered a 
combination with any man to the prejudice of all others whose 
friends respectively may consider them preferable. 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 

November 13, 1859. — Letter to James A. Briggs. 

Danville, Illdjois, November 13, 1859. 
James A. Briggs, Esq. 

Dear Sir : Yours of the 1st, closing with my proposition for com- 
promise, was duly received. I will be on hand, and in due time will 
notify you of the exact day. I believe, after all, I shall make a polit- 
ical speech of it. You have no objection ? I would like to know in 
advance whether I am also to speak or lecture in New York. Very, 
very glad your election went right. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

December 1-5, 1859. — Speeches in Kansas. 

[In response to invitations from Republicans of the then Territory, 
Mr. Lincoln made a visit to Kansas in December, 1859, and made 
speeches at Elwood (opposite St. Joseph, Mo.)^ at Troy, Doniphan, 
Atchison, and Leavenworth, Kansas. Among his papers were a num- 
ber of disconnected sheets of autograph manuscript, which contained 
internal evidence that they were portions of the addresses made by 
him on these occasions. Though the fragments seem to belong to 
different addresses, the topics treated in them justify their presenta- 
tion in the order here arranged, as the general line of argument fol- 
lowed by him.] 

Introduction. 

Purpose of the Repiihlican organization. — The Republican party 
believe there is danger that slavery will be further extended, and 
ultimately made national in the United States ; and to prevent this 
incidental and final consummation, is the purpose of this organi- 
zation. 

Chief danger to that purpose. — A congressional slave code for the 
Territories, and the revival of the African trade, and a second Dred 
Scott decision, are not just now the chief danger to our purpose. 



586 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

These will press us in due time, but they are not quite ready yet — 
they know that, as yet, we are too strong for them. The insidious 
Douglas popular sovereignty, which prepares the way for this ulti- 
mate danger, it is which just now constitutes our chief danger. 

Popular Sovereignty. — I say Douglas popular sovereignty; for 
there is a broad distinction between real popular sovereignty and 
Douglas popular sovereignty. That the nation shall control what 
concerns it; that a State, or any minor political community, shall con- 
trol what exclusively concerns it; and that an individual shall con- 
trol what exclusively concerns him, — is a real popular sovereignty, 
which no Republican opposes. 

But this is not Douglas popular sovereignty, Douglas popular 
sovereignty, as a matter of principle, simply is : " If one man would 
enslave another, neither that other nor any third man has a right 
to object." 

Douglas popular sovereignty, as he practically applies it, is : " If 
any organized political community, however new and small, would 
enslave men or forbid theu' being enslaved within its own territorial 
limits; however the doing the one or the other may affect the men 
sought to be enslaved, or the vastly superior number of men who 
are afterward to come within those limits, or the family of com- 
munities of which it is but a member, or the head of that family, 
as the present and common guardian of the whole — however any 
or all these are to be affected, neither any nor aU may interfere." 

This is Douglas popular sovereignty. He has great difficulty with 
it. His speeches and letters and essays and explanations explana- 
tory of explanations explained upon it, are legion. The most 
lengthy, and as I suppose the most maturely considered, is that 
recently published in "Harper's Magazine." It has two leading 
objects: the first, to appropriate the authority and reverence due 
the great and good men of the Revolution to his popular sover- 
eignty ; and, secondly, to show that the Dred Scott decision has not 
entirely squelched his popular sovereignty. 

Before considering these main objects, I wish to consider a few 
minor points of the copyright essay. 

Last year Governor Seward and myself, at different times and 
occasions, expressed the opinion that slavery is a durable element 
of discord, and that we shall not have peace with it until it either 
masters or is mastered by the free principle. This gave great offense 
to Judge Douglas, and his denunciations of it, and absurd infer- 
ences from it^ have never ceased. Ahnost at the very beginning 
of the copjTight essay he quotes the language respectively of 
Seward and myself — not quite accurately, but substantially, in my 
case — upon this point, and repeats his absurd and extravagant 
inference. For lack of time I omit much which I might say Iiere 
with propriety, and content myself with two remarks only upon this 
point. The fii*st is, that inasmuch as Douglas in this very essay 
tells us slavery agitation began in this country in 1699, and has not 
yet ceased; has lasted through a hundred and sixty years, through 
ten entu'e generations of men, — it might have occurred to even him 
that slavery in its tendency to agitation and discord has something 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 587 

slightly dm-able about it. The second remark is that Judge Doug- 
las might have noted, if he would, while he was diving so deeply 
into history, the historical fact that the only comparative peace we 
have had with slaveiy during that hundred and sixty years was in 
the period from the Revolution to 1820, precisely the period through 
which we were closing out the African slave-trade, abolishing slaveiy 
in several of the States, and restraining the spread of it into new 
ones by the ordinance of '87, precisely the period in which the 
public mind had reason to rest, and did rest, in the belief that 
slavery was in course of ultimate extinction. 

Another point, which for the present I shall touch only hastily, is 
Judge Douglas's assumption that the States and Territories differ 
only in the fact that the States are in the Union, and the Territories 
are not in it. But if tliis be the only difference, why not instantly 
bring the Territories in ? Why keep them out ? Do you say they 
are unfitted for it ? What unfits them ? Especially what unfits them 
for any duty in the Union, after they are fit, if they choose, to plant 
the soil they sparsely inhabit with slavery, beyond the power of their 
millions of successors to eradicate it, and to the durable discord of 
the Union "? What function of sovereignty, out of the Union or in it, 
is so portentous as this I What function of government requires 
such perfect maturity, in numbers and everything else, among those 
who exercise it ? It is a concealed assumption of Douglas's popular 
sovereignty that slavery is a little, harmless, indifferent thing, having 
no wi'ong in it, and no power for mischief about it. If all men looked 
upon it as he does, his policy in regard to it might do. But neither 
all, nor half the world, so look upon it. 

Near the close of the essay in " Haii^ei^s Magazine " Douglas tells 
us that his popular sovereignty pertains to a people only after they 
are regularly organized into a political community ; and that Con- 
gress in its discretion must decide when they are fit in point of num- 
bers to be so organized. Now I should like for him to point out in 
the Constitution any clause conferring that discretion upon Congi'ess, 
which, when pointed out, will not be equally a power in Congress to 
govern them, in its discretion, till they are admitted as a State. Will 
he try ? He intimates that before the exercise of that discretion, 
their number must be ten, fifteen, or twenty thousand. Well, what 
is to be done for them, or with them, or by them, before they number 
ten thousand "? If any one of them desu*es to have slaves, is any other 
one bound to help him, or at liberty to hinder him? Is it his plan 
that any time before they reach the required numbers, those who are 
on hand shall be driven out as trespassers f If so, it will probably 
be a good while before a siifficient number to organize will get in. 

But plainly enough this conceding to Congress the discretion as 
to when a community shall be organized, is a total surrender of his 
popular sovereignty. He says himself it does not pertain to a peo- 
ple until they are organized ; and that when they shall be organized 
is in the discretion of Congi'ess. Suppose Congress shall choose to 
not organize them until they are nvimerous enough to come into 
the Union as a State. By his own rule, his popular sovereignty is 
derived from Congress, and cannot be exercised by the people till 



588 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Congress chooses to confer it. After toiling thi'ougli nineteen mor- 
tal pages of " Harper," to show that Congi-ess cannot keep the people 
of a new countiy from exchidiug slavery, in a single closing para- 
graph he makes the whole tiling depend on Congress at last. And 
should Congress refuse to organize, how will that affect the qiiestion 
of planting slavery in a new country? If indi\dduals choose to 
plant it, the people cannot prevent them, for they are not yet clothed 
with popular sovereignity. If it be said that it cannot be planted, in 
fact, without protective law, that assertion is already falsified by 
history; for it was originally planted on this continent without 
protective law. 

And, ])y the way, it is probable that no act of territorial organi- 
zation could be passed by the present Senate ; and almost certainly 
not by both the Senate and House of Representatives. K an act de- 
clared the right of Congi'ess to exclude slavery, the Republicans 
would vote for it, and both wings of the Democracy against it. If it 
denied the power to either exclude or protect it, the Douglasites would 
vote for it, and both the Republicans and slave-coders against it. If 
it denied the powder to exclude, and asserted the power to protect, 
the slave-coders would vote for it, and the Republicans and Douglas- 
ites against it. 

You are now a part of a people of a Territory, but that Territory 
is soon to be a State of the Union. Both in your individual and 
collective capacities, you have the same interest in the past, the pres- 
ent, and the future of the United States as any other portion of the 
people. Most of you came from the States, and all of you soon will 
be citizens of the common Union. What I shaU now addi'ess to you 
will have neither greater nor less application to you than to any 
other people of the Union. 

You are gathered to-day as a Repubhcan convention — Republican 
in the party sense, and, as we hope, in the true, original sense of the 
word repubhcan. 

I assume that Republicans throughout the nation believe they are 
right, and are earnest and determined in their cause. 

Let them then keep constantly in view that the chief object of 
their organization is to prevent the spread and nationalization of 
slavery. With this ever distinctly before us, we can always better 
see at what point our cause is most in danger. 

We are, as I think, in the present temper or state of public sen- 
timent, in no danger fi*om the open advocates of a congressional 
slave code for the Territories, and of the revival of the Afi-ican slave- 
trade. As yet we are strong enough to meet and master any com- 
bination openly formed on those grounds. It is only the insidious 
position of Douglas that endangers om' cause. That position is 
simply an ambuscade. By entering into contest with our open ene- 
mies, we are to be lured into his train ; and then, having lost our 
own organization and arms, we are to be turned over to those same 
open enemies. 

Douglas's position leads to the nationalization of slavery as surely 
as does that of Jeff Davis and Mason of Vii'ginia. The two posi- 
tions are but slightly different roads to the same place — with this 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 589 

difference, that the nationalization of slaveiy can be reached by 
Douglas's route, and never can be by the other. 

I Iiave said that in oiu* present moral tone and temper we are 
strong enough for our open enemies, and so we are. But the chief 
effect of Douglasism is to change that tone and temper. Men who 
support the measures of a political leader do, almost of necessity, adopt 
the reasoning and sentiments the leader advances in support of them. 
The reasoning and sentiments advanced by Douglas in support of 
his pohcy as to slavery all spring from the \'iew that slavery is not 
wrong. In the first place, he never says it is wrong. He says he 
does not care whether it shall be voted down or ^'oted up. He says 
whoever wants slavery has a right to have it. He says the question 
whether people will have it or not is simply a question of dollars 
and cents. He says the Almighty has draM^u a line across the con- 
tinent, on one side of which the soil must be cultivated by slave 
labor. 

Now let the people of the fi*ee States adopt these sentiments, and 
they will be unable to see a single reason for maintaining their pro- 
hibitions of slavery in their own States. '' Wliat ! do you mean to 
say that anything in these sentiments requii'es us to beheve it will 
be the interest of Northern States to have slaverj'- ? " No. But I do 
mean to say that although it is not the interest of Northern States 
to grow cotton, none of them have, or need, any law against it ; and 
it would be tyranny to deprive any one man of the privilege to grow 
cotton in Illinois. There are many indi\'idual men in all the free 
States who desire to have slaves ; and if you admit that slavery is 
not wrong, it is also but twanny to deny them the privilege. It is 
no just function of government to prohibit what is not wi'ong. 

Again, if slaveiy is right — ordained by the Almighty — on one side 
of a hue dividing sister States of a common Union, then it is posi- 
tively wi'ong to harass and bede\"il the owners of it with constitu- 
tions and laws and prohibitions of it on the other side of the line. 
In short, there is no justification for prohibiting slavery anywhere, 
save only in the assumption that slavery is wrong ; and whenever 
tlie sentiment that slaverv is wrong shall give way in the North, all 
legal prohibitions of it will also give way. 

If it be insisted that men may support Douglas's measures with- 
out adopting his sentiments, let it be tested by what is actually pass- 
ing before us. You can even now find no Douglas man who ^ill 
disavow any one of these sentiments ; and none but will actually in- 
dorse them if pressed to the point. 

Five years ago no living man had placed on record, nor, as I believe, 
verbally expressed, a denial that negi-oes have a share in the Declara^ 
tion of Independence. Two or three years since, Douglas began to 
deny it ; and now every Douglas man in the nation denies it. 

To the same effect is the absurdity compounded of support to the 
Dred Scott decision, and le^slation unfriendly to slavery by the Ter- 
ritories — the absurdity which asserts that a thing may be lawfully 
driven from a place, at which place it has a lawful right to remain. 
That absurd position will not be long maintained by anj' one. The 
Dred Scott half of it "will soon master the other half. The process vrill 



590 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

probably be about this : some ten*itorial legislature will adopt un- 
friendly legislation ; the Supreme Court will decide that legislation 
to be unconstitutional, and then the advocates of the present com- 
pound absurdity will acquiesce in the decision. The only effect of 
that position now is to prepare its advocates for such acquiescence 
when the time comes. Like wood for ox-bows, they are merely being 
soaked in it preparatory to the bending. The advocates of a slave 
code are not now strong enough to master us ; and they never will 
be, unless recruits enough to make them so be tolled in through the 
gap of Douglasism. Douglas, on the sly, is effecting more for them 
than all their open advocates. He has reason to be provoked that 
they will not understand him, and recognize him as their best friend. 
He cannot be more plain, without being so plain as to lure no one 
into tlieii' trap — so plain as to lose his power to serve them profit- 
ably. Take other instances. Last year both Governor Seward and 
myself expressed the belief that this government cannot endure per- 
manently half slave and half free. This gave great offense to Doug- 
las, and after the fall election in Illinois he became quite rampant 
upon it. At Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans, he de- 
nounced it as a " fatal heresy." With great pride he claimed that he 
had crushed it in Illinois, and modestly regi*etted that he could not 
have been in New York to crush it there too. How the heresy is 
fatal to anything, or what the thing is to which it is fatal, he "has 
never paused to tell us. At all events, it is a fatal heresy in his view 
when expressed by a Northern man. Not so when expressed by men 
of the South. In 1856, Roger A. Pryor, editor of the Richmond "■ En- 
quirer," expressed the same belief in that paper, quite two years 
before it was expressed by either Seward or me. But Douglas 
perceived no "heresy" in him — talked not of going to Virginia to 
crush it out ; nay, more, he now has that same Mr. Pryor at Wash- 
ington, editing the "States" newspaper as his especial organ. 

This brings us to see that in Douglas's view this opinion is a 
" fatal heresy " when expressed by men wishing to have the nation 
all free, and it is no heresy at all when expressed by men wishing to 
have it all slave. Douglas has cause to complain that the South will 
not note this and give him credit for it. 

At Memphis Douglas told his audience that he was for the negTo 
against the crocodile, but for the Avhite man against the negro. This 
was not a sudden thought hastily thrown off at Memphis. He said 
tlie same thing many times in Illinois last summer and autumn, 
though I am not sure it was reported then. 

It is a carefully formed illustration of the estimate he places upon 
the negro and the manner he would have him dealt with. It is 
a sort of proposition in proportion. "As the negro is to the croco- 
dile, so the white man is to the negro." As the negi'o ought to treat 
the crocodile as a beast, so the white man ought to treat tlie negi'o as 
a beast. Gentlemen of the South, is not that satisfactory ? Will you 
give Douglas no credit for impressing that sentiment on the North- 
ern mind for your benefit ? Why, you should magnify him to the 
utmost, in order that he may impress it the more deeply, broadly, 
and surely. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 591 

A hope is often expressed that all the elements of opposition to 
the so-called Democracy may unite in the next presidential election ; 
and to favor this it is suggested that at least one candidate on the 
opposition national ticket must be resident in the slave States. I 
strongly sympathize with this hope; and the particular suggestion 
presents no difficulty to me. There are very many men in the 
slave States who as men and statesmen and patriots are quite accept- 
able to me for either President or Vice-President. But there is a 
difficulty of another sort ; and I think it most prudent for us to face 
that difftcidty at once. Will those good men of tlie South occupy any 
ground upon which we of the free States can vote for them ? There 
is the rub. They seem to labor under a huge mistake in regard to 
us. They say they are tired of slavery agitation. We think the 
slaves, and free white lal)oring-men too, have more reason to be 
tired of slavery than masters have to be tired of agitation about it. 
In Kentucky a Democratic candidate for Congress takes ground 
against a congressional slave-code for the Territories, whereupon 
his opponent, in full hope to unite with Republicans in 1860, takes 
ground in favor of such slave-code. Such hope, under such cu*cum- 
stances, is delusion gross as insanity itself. Rational men can only 
entertain it in the strange beUef that Republicans are not in earnest 
for their principles ; that they are really devoted to no principle of 
their own, but are ready for, and anxious to jiunp to, any position 
not occupied by the Democracy. This mistake must be dispelled. 
For the sake of theu* principles, in forming theu' party, they broke 
and sacrificed the strongest mere party ties and advantages which 
can exist. Republicans believe that slavery is wrong ; and they insist, 
and will continue to insist, upon a national policy which recognizes 
it and deals with it as a wi-ong. There can be no letting down al)out 
this. Simultaneously with such letting down the Republican organ- 
ization would go to pieces, and half its elements would go in a 
different direction, leaving an easy victory to the common enemy. 
No ingenuity of political trading could possibly hold it together. 
About this there is no joke, and can be no trifling. Understanding 
this, that Republicanism can never mix with territorial slave-codes 
becomes seK-evident. 

In this contest mere men are notliing. We could come down to 
Douglas quite as well as to any other man standing with him, and 
better than to any other standing below or beyond him. The simple 
problem is : will any good and capable man of the South allow the 
Republicans to elect him on their own platform 1 If such man can 
be found, I believe the thing can be done. It can be done in no 
other way. 

What do we gain, say some, by such a union ? Certainly not 
everything ; but still something, and quite all that we for our lives 
can possibly give. In yielding a share of the high honors and 
offices to you, you gain the assm-ance that ours is not a mere strug- 
gle to secure those honors and offices for one section. You gain the 
assurance that we mean no more than we say in om* platforms, else 
we would not intrust you to execute them. You gain the assm-ance 
that we intend no invasion of your rights or your honor, else we 



592 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAil LINCOLN 

would not make one of 3'ou the executor of the laws and commander 
of the army and navy. 

As a matter of mere partizan policy, there is no reason for and 
much against any letting down of the Republican party in order to 
form a union with the Southern opposition. By no possibility can a 
union ticket secure a simple electoral vote in the South, unless the 
Republican platform be so far let down as to lose every electoral 
vote in the North ; and even at that, not a single vote would be se- 
cured in the South, unless by bare possibility those of Maryland. 
There is no successful basis of union but for some good Southern 
man to allow us of the North to elect him square on our platform. 
Plainly it is that or nothing. 

The St. Louis " Intelligencer" is out in favor of a good man for 
President, to be run without a platform. "Well, I am not wedded to 
the f onnal wiitten platform system ; but a thousand to one the edi- 
tor is not himself in favor of his plan, except with the qualification 
that he and his sort are to select and name the " good man." To 
bring him to the test, is he willing to take Seward without a plat- 
form ? Oh, no ; Seward's antecedents exclude him, say you. Well, is 
your good man without antecedents ? If he is, how shall the nation 
know that he is a good man ? The sum of the matter is that, in the 
absence of formal wi'itten platforms, the antecedents of candidates 
become their platforms. On just such platforms all our earlier and 
better Presidents were elected, but this by no means facilitates a 
union of men who differ in principles. 

Nor do I believe we can ever advance oui* principles by supporting 
men who oppose our principles. Last year, as you know, we Repul)- 
licans in Illinois were advised by numerous and respectable outsiders 
to reelect Douglas to the Senate by our votes. I never questioned 
the motives of such advisers, nor the devotion to the Republican 
cause of such as professed to be Republicans. But I never for a mo- 
ment thought of following the advice, and have never yet regretted 
that we did not follow it. True, Douglas is back in the Senate in 
spite of us ; but we are clear of him and his principles, and we are 
uncrippled and ready to fight both him and them straight along till 
they shall be finally " closed out." Had we followed the ad\ice, there 
would now be no Republican party in Illinois, and none to speak of 
anywhere else. The whole thing would now be floundering along 
after Douglas upon the Dred Scott and crocodile theory. It would 
have been the grandest "haul" for slavery ever yet made. Our 
principles would still live, and ere long would produce a party ; biit 
we should have lost all our past labor and twenty years of time by 
the foUy. 

Take an illustration. About a year ago all the Republicans in 
Congress voted for what was called the Crittenden-Montgomeiy bill ; 
and forthwith Douglas claimed, and still claims, that they were all 
committed to his " gui'-reat pur-rinciple." And Republicans have 
been so far embarrassed by the claim that they have ever since 
been protesting that they were not so committed, and trying to explain 
why. Some of the very newspapers which advised Douglas's retui'n 
to the Senate by Republican votes have been largely and contiu- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 593 

uously engaged in these protests and explanations. For such let us 
state a question in the rule of three. If voting for the Crittenden- 
Montgomery bill entangle the Republicans with Douglas's dogmas 
for one year, how long would voting for Douglas himself so entangle 
them? 

It is nothing to the contrary that Republicans gained something 
by electing Haskins, Hickman, and Davis. They were comparatively 
small men. I mean no disrespect ; they may have large merit ; but 
Republicans can dally with them, and absorb or expel them at pleas- 
ure. If they dally with Douglas, he absorl)s them. 

We want, and must have, a national policy as to slavery which 
deals with it as being a wrong. Whoever would prevent slaveiy 
becoming national and perpetual yields all when he yields to a 
policy wliich treats it either as being right, or as being a matter of 
indifference. 

We admit that the United States General Government is not charged 
with the duty of redressing or preventing all the \^Tongs in the 
world. But the government rightfully may, and subject to the Con- 
stitution ought to, redress and prevent all wrongs which are wi'ongs 
to the nation itself. It is expressly charged with the duty of pro- 
viding for the general welfare. We think slavery impairs and en- 
dangers the general welfare. Those who do not think this are not 
of us, and we cannot agree with them. We must shape our own 
course bj^ our own judgment. 

We must not disturb slavery in the States where it exists, because 
the Constitution and the peace of the country both forbid us. We 
must not withhold an efficient fugitive-slave law, because the Con- 
stitution demands it. 

But we must, by a national policy, prevent the spread of slavery 
into new Territories, or fi'ee States, because the Constitution does 
not forbid us, and the general welfare does demand such prevention. 
We must prevent the revival of the African slave-trade, because the 
Constitution does not forbid us, and the general welfare does require 
the prevention. We must prevent these things being done by either 
congi'csses or courts. The people — the people — are the rightful mas- 
ters of both congi'csses and courts, — not to overtlii'ow the Constitu- 
tion, but to overthrow the men who pervert it. 

To effect our main object we have to employ auxiliary means. 
We must hold conventions, adopt platforms, select candidates, and 
carry elections. At every step we must be true to the main purpose. 
If we adopt a platform falhng short of our principle, or elect a man 
rejecting our principle, we not only take nothing affii-mative by our 
success, but we draw upon us the positive embarrassment of seeming 
ourselves to have abandoned om* principle. 

That our principle, however baffled or delayed, wiU finally tri- 
umph, I do not permit myself to doubt. Men will pass away — die, 
die politically and naturally ; but the principle will live, and hve 
forever. Organizations rallied around tliat principle may, by their 
own dereliction, go to pieces, thereby losing all their time and labor; 
but the principle will remain, and will reproduce another, and 
another, tiU the final triumph will come. 
Vol. I.— 38. 



594 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

But to bring it soon, we must save our labor already performed — 
our organization, which has cost us so much time and toil to create. 
We must keep our principle constantly in view, and never be false 
to it. 

And as to men for leaders, we must remember that '' He that is 
not for us is against us ; and he that gathereth not with us scat- 
tereth." 

December 9, 1859. — Letter to N. B, Judd. 

Springfield, December 9, 1859. 
Hon. N. B. Jitdd. 

My dear Sir : I have just reached home from Kansas and found 
your long letter of the 1st inst. It has a tone of blame toward 
myself which I think is not quite just; but I will not stand upon 
that, but will consider a day or two, and put something in the 
best shape I can, and send it to you. A great difficulty is that 
they make no distinct charge against you which I can contradict. 
You did vote for Trumbull against me; and, although I think, 
and have said a thousand times, that was no injustice to me, I 
cannot change the fact, nor compel people to cease speaking of 
it. Ever since that matter occurred, I have constantly labored, 
as I believe you know, to have all recollection of it dropped. 

The vague charge that you played me false last year I believe to 
be false and outrageous; but it seems I can make no impression by 
expressing that belief. I made a special job of trjdng to impress 
that upon Baker, Bridges, and Wilson here last winter. They all 
well know that I believe no such charge against you. But they 
chose to insist that they know better about it than I do. 

As to the charge of your intriguing for Trumbull against me, 
I believe as little of that as any other charge. If Trumbull and 
I were candidates for the same office, you would have a right to 
prefer him, and I should not blame you for it ; but all my acquain- 
tance with you induces me to believe you would not pretend to be for 
me while really for him. But I do not understand Trumbull and 
myself to be rivals. You know I am pledged to not enter a strug- 
gle with him for the seat in the Senate now occupied by him; 
and yet I would rather have a full term in the Senate than in the 
presidency. Your friend as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 

P. S. — I omitted to say that I have, in no single instance, per- 
mitted a charge such as alluded to above to go uncontradicted when 
made in my presence. A. L. 

December 14, 1859. — Letter to N. B. Judd. 

Springfield, December 14, 1859. 

Dear Judd : Herewith is the letter of our old Whig friends, and 

my answer, sent as you requested. I showed both to Dubois, and he 

feared the clause about leave to publish, in the answer, woiild not 

be quite satisfactory to you. I hope it will be satisfactory, as I 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 595 

woiild rather not seem to come before the public as a volunteer; stiU 
if, after considering this, you still deem it important, you may sub- 
stitute the inclosed slip by pasting it down over the original clause. 

I find some of our friends here attach more consequence to 
getting the national convention into our State than I did, or do. 
Some of them made me promise to say so to you. As to the time, it 
must certainly be after the Charleston fandango ; and I think, within 
bounds of reason, the later the better. 

As to that matter about the committee, in relation to appointing 
delegates by general convention, or by districts, I shall attend to it 
as well as I know how, which, God knows, will not be very well. 
Write me if you can find anything to write. Yom-s as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 

[Inclosiu'e.] 
Springfield, Illinois, December 14, 1859. 

Messrs. George W. Dole, G. S. Hubbard, andW. H. Brow:n. 

Gentlemen: Your letter of the 12th instant is received. To your 
question ; "In the election of senator in 1854 [1855 j^ou mean], when 
Mr. Trumbull was the successful candidate, was there any unfairness 
in the conduct of Mr. Judd toward you, or anything blamable on 
his part ? " I answer, I have never believed, and do not now believe, 
that on that occasion there was any unf au'ness in the conduct of Mr. 
Judd toward me, or anything blamable on his part. Without de- 
ception, he preferred Judge Trumbull to myself, which was his clear 
right, morally as well as legally. 

To your question: " Diu'ing the canvass of last year, did he do his 
whole duty towcird you and the Republican party?" I answer, I 
have always believed, and now believe, that during that canvass he 
did his whole duty toward me and the Republican party. 

To your question : " Do you know of anything unf au' in liis con- 
duct toward yoiirseK in any way ? " I answer, I neither know nor 
suspect anytlung unfaii* in his conduct toward myseK in any way. 

I take pleasure in adding that of all the avowed friends I had in 
the canvass of last year, I do not suspect a single one of having acted 
treacherously to me, or to our cause ; and that there is not one of them 
in whose honor and integrity I have more confidence to-day than in 
that of Mr. Judd. 

You can use your discretion as to whether you make this public. 
Yours very truly, A. LmcOLN. 

December 19, 1859. — Letter to G. M. Parsons and Others. 
Springfield, Illinois, December 19, 1859. 

Messrs. G. M. Parsons, and Others, Central Executive Com- 
mittee, etc. 
Gentlemen: Your letter of the 7th instant, accompanied by a similar 

one from the governor-elect, the Republican State officers, and tlie 



596 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Republican members of the State Board of Equalization of Ohio, 
both requesting of me, for publication in permanent form, copies of 
the poUtical debates between Senator Douglas and myself last year, 
has been received. With my grateful acknowledgments to both you 
and them for the very flattering terms in which the request is com- 
municated, I transmit you the copies. The copies I send you are 
as reported and printed by the respective friends of Senator Douglas 
and myself, at the time — that is, his by his friends, and mine by mine. 
It would be an unwarrantable liberty for us to change a word or 
a letter in his, and the changes I have made in mine, you perceive, 
are verbal only, and very tew in number. I wish the reprint to be 
precisely as the copies I send, without any comment whatever. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln, 

December 20, 1859. — Letter to J. W. Fell. 

Springfield, December 20, 1859. 
J. W. Fell, Esq. 

My dear Sir : Herewith is a little sketch, as you requested. There 
is not much of it, for the reason, I suppose, that there is not much 
of me. If anything be made out of it, I wish it to be modest, and 
not to go beyond the material. If it were thought necessary to in- 
corporate anything from any of my speeches, I suppose there would 
be no objection. Of course it must not appear to have been WTitten 
by myself. Yours very truly, 

* A. Lincoln, 

I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. My 
parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families — 
second famihes, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my 
tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom 
now reside in Adams, and others in Macon County, Illinois. My 
paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rocking- 
ham County, Virginia, to Kentucky about 1781 or 1782, wdiere a year 
or tAvo later he was killed by the Indians, not in battle, but by stealth, 
when he was la])oring to open a farm in the forest. His ancestors, 
who were Quakei"s, went to Virginia from Berks County, Pennsylva- 
nia. An effort to identify them with the New England family of 
the same name ended in nothing more definite than a similaritj' of 
Christian names in both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Soh)- 
mon, Abraham, and the like. 

My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age, and 
he grew up litei-ally witliout education. He removed from Kentucky 
to what is now Spencer County, Indiana, in my eighth year. We 
reached our new home about the time the State came into the Union. 
It was a wild region, with many l)ears and other wild animals stiU 
in the woods. There I grew up^ Tliere were some schools, so caUed, 
))nt no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond "readin', 
writin', and cipherin' " to the rule of three. If a straggler supposed to 
understand Latin happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was 
looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 597 

ambition for education. Of course, when I came of a^e I did not 
know much. 8till, somehow, I could read, MTite, and cipher to the 
rule of three, but that was all. I have not been to school since. 
The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have 
picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity. 

I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was twenty- 
two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois, Macon County. Then I got 
to New Salem, at that time in Sangamon, now in Menard County, 
where I remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came 
the Black Hawk war ; and I was elected a captain of volunteers, a 
success which gave me more pleasm'e than any I have had since. 
I went the campaign, was elated, ran for the legislature the same 
year (1832), and was beaten — the onty time I ever have been beaten 
by the people. The next and three succeeding biennial elections I 
was elected to the legislature. I was not a candidate afterward. 
Duiing this legislative period I had studied law, and removed to 
Springfield to practise it. In 1846 I was once elected to the lower 
House of CongTess. Was not a candidate for reelection. From 1849 
to 1854, both inclusive, practised law more assiduously than ever 
before. Always a "Wliig in politics ; and generally on the Whig 
electoral tickets, making active canvasses. I was losing interest in 
politics when the repeal of the Missouri compromise aroused me 
again. What I have done since then is pretty well kno^^^l. 

If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be 
said I am, in height, six feet fom* inches, nearly; lean in flesh, w^eigh- 
iug on an average one hundi-ed and eighty pounds; dark com- 
plexion, with coarse black haii* and gray eyes. No other marks or 
brands recollected. Yours truly, 

Hon. J. W. Fell. A. Lincoln. 



January 24, 1860. — Letter to J. W. Sheahax. 

Springfield, January 24, 1860. 
James W. Sheahan, Esq. 

Bear Sir : Yom-s of the 21st, requesting copies of my speeches 
now in progress of publication in Ohio, is received. I have no such 
copies now at my control, having sent the only set I ever had to 
Ohio. Mr. George M. Parsons has taken an active pai-t among 
those w^io have the matter in charge in Ohio; and I understand 
Messrs. FoUett, Foster & Co. are to be the publishers. I make no 
objection to any satisfactory arrangement you may make with Mr. 
Parsons and the publishers; and if it -vvill facilitate you, you are at 
liberty to show them this note. 

You labor under a mistake somew^hat injurious to me, if you sup- 
pose I have revised the speeches in any just sense of the word. I 
only made some small verbal corrections, mostly such as an intelli- 
gent reader would make for himself, not feeling justified to do more 
w^hen repul)lishing the speeches along with those of Senator Doug- 
las, his and mine being mutually answers and replies to one another. 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 



598 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

February 5, 1860. — Letter to N. B. Judd. 

Springfield, February 5, 1860. 
Hon. N. B. Judd. 

My dear Sir : Your two letters were duly received. Whether Mr. 
Storrs shall come to Illinois aud assist in our approaching campaign, 
is a question of dollars and cents. Can we pay him ? If we can, that 
is the sole question. I consider his services very valuable. 

A day or so before you wi'ote about Mr. Herndon, Dubois told me 
that he (Herndon) had been talking to William Jayne in the way you 
indicate. At first sight afterward, I mentioned it to him ; he rather 
denied the charge, and I did not press him about the past, but got 
his solemn pledge to say nothing of the sort in the future. I had 
done this before I received your letter. I impressed upon him as 
well as I could, first, that STich [sic] was untrue and unjust to you; and, 
second, that I would be held responsible for what he said. Let this 
be private. 

Some folks are pretty bitter toward me about the Dole, Hubbard, 
and Brown letter. Yours as ever, » Lmroi n 

February 9, 1860. — Letter to N. B. Judd. 

Springfield, February 9, 1860. 
Hon. N. B. Judd. 

Dear Sir : I am not in a position where it would hurt much for 
me to not be nominated on the national ticket; but I am where it 
would hm't some for me to not get the Illinois delegates. What I 
expected when I wrote the letter to Messrs. Dole and others is now 
happening. Yom- discomfited assailants are most bitter against me; 
and they will, for revenge upon me, lay to the Bates egg in the 
South, and to the Seward egg in the North, and go far toward 
squeezing me out in the middle with nothing. Can you not help me 
a little in this matter in your end of the vineyard ? I mean this to 
be private. Yours as ever, ^ Lincoln. 

February 9, 1860. — Letter to J. M. Lucas. 

Springfield, February 9, 1860. 
J. M. Lucas, Esq. 

My dear Sir: Your late letter, suggesting, among other things, 
that I might aid youi* election as postmaster, by writing to Mr. 
Burlingame, was duly received the day the Speaker was elected; 
so that I had no hope a letter of mine could reach Mr. B. before 
your case would be decided, as it turned out in fact it could not. 
We are all much gratified here to see you are elected. We con- 
sider you our peculiar friend at court. 

I shall be glad to receive a letter from you at any time you can 
find leism-e to write one. Yours very truly, . -r p^„^- ^ 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 599 



Februai-y 27, 1860. — Address at Cooper Institute, New York. 

Mr. President and Fellow-citizens of New York: The facts with 
which I shall deal this evening are mainly old and familiar ; nor is 
there anything new in the general nse I shall make of them. If 
there shall be any novelty, it will be in the mode of presenting the 
facts, and the inferences and observations following that presenta- 
tion. In his speech last autumn at Columbus, Ohio, as reported in 
the " New- York Times," Senator Douglas said : 

Our fathers, when they framed the government under which we live, un- 
derstood this question just as well, and even better, than we do now. 

I fully indorse this, and I adopt it as a text for this discourse. I 
so adopt it because it furnishes a precise and an agi-eed starting-point 
for a discussion between Republicans and that wing of the Democ- 
racy headed by Senator Douglas. It simply leaves the inquiry: 
What was the understanding those fathers had of the question men- 
tioned ? 

Wliat is the frame of government under which we live? The 
answer must be, '' The Constitution of the United States." That Con- 
stitution consists of the original, framed in 1787, and under which 
the present government first went into operation, and twelve subse- 
quentlv framed amendments, the fu'st ten of which were framed 
in 1789. 

Who were our fathers that framed the Constitution f I suppose 
the " thirty-nine " who signed the original instrument may be f au-ly 
called our fathers who framed that part of the present government. 
It is almost exactly true to say they framed it, and it is altogether 
true to say they fairly represented the opinion and sentiment of the 
whole nation at that time. Theii' names, being familiar to nearly all, 
and accessible to quite all, need not now be repeated. 

I take these '' thirty-nine," for the present, as being " om* fathers 
who framed the government under which we live." What is the 
question which, according to the text, those fathers understood " just 
as well, and even better, than we do now " ? 

It is this : Does the proper division of local from Federal authority, 
or anything in the Constitution, forbid our Federal Government to 
control as to slavery in oiir Federal Territories f 

Upon this, Senator Douglas holds the affirmative, and Repul)licans 
the negative. This affirmation and denial form an issue ; and this 
issue — this question — is precisely what the text declares our fathers 
understood '' better than we." Let us now in(iuire whether the 
" thirty-nine," or any of them, ever acted upon this question ; and if 
they did, how they acted upon it — how they expressed that better 
understanding. In 1784, three years before the Constitution, the 
United States then owning the Northwestern Territory, and no other, 
the Congress of the Confederation had before them Ihe question of 
prohil)iting slavery in that Territoiy ; and fom- of the " thirty-nine " 
who afterward framed the Constitution were in that Congress, and 
voted on that question. Of these, Roger Sherman, Thomas Mifflin, 



600 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and Hvigli Williamson voted for the prohibition, thus showing that, 
in their understanding, no hne di\iding local from Federal authority, 
nor anj-tliing else, jDroperly forbade the Federal Government to con- 
trol as to slavery in Federal territory. The other of the four, James 
McHenry, voted against the prohibition, showing that for some cause 
he thought it improper to vote for it. 

In 1787, still before the Constitution, but while the convention was 
in session framing it, and while the Northwestern Tenitory stiD was 
the only Territory owned by the United States, the same question of 
prohibiting slavery in the Territory again came before the Congi-ess 
of the Confederation; and two more of the "thirty-nine" who after- 
ward signed the Constitution were in that Congress, and voted on 
the question. They were William Blount and William Few ; and 
they both voted for the prohibition — thus showing that in their 
understanding no line dividing local from Federal authority, nor 
anything else, properly forbade the Federal Government to control 
as to slavery in Federal territory. This time the prohibition be- 
came a law, being part of what is now well known as the ordinance 
of '87. 

The question of Federal control of slavery in the Territories seems 
not to have been directly before the convention which framed the 
original Constitution; and hence it is not recorded that the "thii'ty- 
nine," or any of them, while engaged on that instrument, expressed 
any opinion on that precise question. 

In 1789, by the first Congi*ess which sat under the Constitution, 
an act was passed to enforce the ordinance of '87, including the pro- 
hibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory. The bill for this 
act was reported by one of tlie "thirty-nine" — Thomas Fitzsimmons, 
then a member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. 
It went through all its stages without a word of opposition, and 
finally passed both branches without ayes and nays, which is equiv- 
alent to a unanimous passage. In this Congress there were sixteen 
of the thirty-nine fatliers who framed the original Constitution. 
They were John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman, Wm. S. Johnson, Roger 
Sherman, Robert Morris, Thos. Fitzsimmons, William Few, Abra- 
ham Bahhvin, Riifus King, William Paterson, George Clj'mer, 
Ricliard Bassett, George Read, Pierce Butler, Daniel CaiToll, and 
James IMadison. 

This shows that, in their understanding, no line di^^ding local 
from Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, properly 
forbade Congress to prohibit slavery in the Fedei-al teiTitory; else 
both their fidelity to correct principle, and their oath to support the 
Constitution, would have constrained them to oppose the prohibition. 

Again, George Washington, another of the "thirty-nine," was 
then President of the United States, and as such approved and 
signed the bill, thus completing its validity as a law, and thus show- 
ing that, in his understanding, no line dividing local from Federal 
authority, nor anything in the Constitution, forbade the Federal 
Government to control as to slavery in Federal territory. 

No great while after the adoption of the oi-iginal Constitution, 
North Carolina ceded to the Federal Government the country now 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 601 

coustitutiug the State of Tennessee ; and a few years later Georgia 
ceded that which now constitutes the States of Mississippi and 
Alabama. In both deeds of cession it was made a condition by 
the ceding States that the Federal Government should not pro- 
hibit slavery in the ceded country. Besides this, slavery was 
then actually in the ceded country. Under these circumstances, 
Congress, on taking charge of these countries, did not absolutely 
proliibit slavery \^dtllin them. But they did interfere with it — take 
control of it — even there, to a certain extent. In 1798 Congress 
organized the Tenitoiy of Mississippi. In the act of organization 
they prohibited the bringing of slaves into the Territory from any 
place mthout the United States, by fine, and giving freedom to 
slaves so brought. This act passed both branches of Congi*ess 
without yeas and nays. In that Congress were three of the 
** thirty-nine'' who framed the original Constitution. They were 
John Langdon, George Read, and Abraham Baldwin. They all prob- 
ably voted for it. Certainly they would have placed their opposition 
to it upon record if, in their understanding, any line di\iding local 
from Federal authority, or anything in the Constitvition, properly 
forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal 
territory. 

In 1803 the Federal Government purchased the Louisiana country. 
Our former territorial acquisitions came from certain of our own 
States ; but this Louisiana countiy was acquired from a foreign na- 
tion. In 1804 Congi'ess gave a territorial organization to that part 
of it which now constitutes the State of Louisiana, New Orleans, 
lying within that part, was an old and comparatively large city. 
There were other considerable towns and settlements, and slavery 
was extensively and thoroughly intermingled with the people. Con- 
gress did not, in the Territorial Act, prohibit slavery ; but they did 
interfere with it — take control of it — in a more marked and exten- 
sive way than they did in the case of Mississippi. The substance of 
the provision therein made in relation to slaves was : 

1st. That no slave should be imported into the Territory from 
foreign parts. 

2d. That no slave should be carried into it who had been im- 
ported into the United States since the first day of May, 1798. 

3d. That no slave should be carried into it, except by the owner, 
and for his own use as a settler; the penalty in all the cases being a 
fine upon the \dolator of the law, and freedom to the slave. 

This act also was passed without ayes or nays. In the Congress 
which passed it there were two of the " thirty-nine." They were 
Abraham Baldwin and Jonathan Dayton. As stated in the case of 
Mississippi, it is probable they both voted for it. They would not 
have allowed it to pass without recording their opposition to it if, 
in their understanding, it violated either the line properly dividing 
local from Federal authority, or any provision of the Constitution. 

In 1819-20 came and passed the Missouri question. Many votes 
were taken, by yeas and nays, in both branches of Congress, upon 
the various phases of the general question. Two of the '^ thirty- 
nine" — Rufus King and Charles Piuckney — were members of that 



602 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Congress. Mr. King steadily voted for slavery prohibition and 
against all compromises, while Mr. Pinckney as steadily voted 
against slavery prohibition and against all compromises. By this, 
Mr. King showed that, in his understanding, no line dividing local 
from Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, was vio- 
lated by Congress prohibiting slavery in Federal territory ; while 
Mr, Pinckney, by his votes, showed that, in his understanding, there 
was some sufficient reason for opposing such prohibition in that case. 

The cases I have mentioned are the only acts of the " thirty-nine," 
or of any of them, upon the direct issue, which I have been able to 
discover. 

To enumerate the persons who thus acted as being four in 1784, 
two in 1787, seventeen in 1789, three in 1798, two in 1804, and two 
in 1819-20, there would be thirty of them. But this would be 
counting John Langdon, Roger Sherman, William Few, Rufus King, 
and George Read each twice, and Abraham Baldwin three times. 
The true number of those of the ^' thirty-nine " whom I have shown 
to have acted upon the question which, by the text, they understood 
better than we, is twenty-three, leaving sixteen not shown to have 
acted upon it in any way. 

Here, then, we have twenty-three out of our thirty-nine fathers 
" who framed the government under which we live," who have, upon 
their official responsibility and their corporal oaths, acted upon the 
very question which the text affirms they "understood just as well, 
and even better, than we do now " ; and twenty-one of them — a clear 
majority of the whole '' thirty-nine " — so acting upon it as to make 
them guilty of gross political impropriety and wilful perjury if, in 
their understanding, any proper division between local and Federal 
authority, or anything in the Constitution they had made themselves, 
and sworn to support, forbade the Federal Government to control as 
to slavery in the Federal Territories. Thus the twenty-one acted ; 
and, as actions speak louder than words, so actions under such re- 
sponsibility speak still louder. 

Two of the twenty-three voted against congressional prohibition 
of slavery in the Federal Territories, in the instances in which they 
acted upon the question. But for what reasons they so voted is not 
known. They may have done so because they thought a proper di- 
\dsion of local from Federal authority, or some provision or principle 
of the Constitution, stood in the way; or they may, without any 
such question, have voted against the prohibition on what appeared 
to them to be sufficient grounds of expediency. No one who has 
sworn to support the Constitution can conscientiously vote for what 
he understands to be an unconstitutional measure, however expedi- 
ent he may think it; but one may and ought to vote against a mea- 
sure which he deems constitutional if, at the same time, he deems it 
inexpedient. It, therefore, would be unsafe to set down even the 
two who voted against the prohibition as having done so because, 
in their understanding, any proper division of local from Federal 
authority, or anything in the Constitution, forbade the Federal Gov- 
ernment to control as to slavery in Federal territory. 

The remaining sixteen of the *' thirty-nine," so far as I have dis- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 603 

covered, have left no record of their understanding upon the direct 
question of Federal control of slavery in the Federal Territories. 
But there is much reason to believe that their understanding upon 
that question would not have appeared different from that of their 
twent3^-three compeers, had it been manifested at all. 

For the purpose of adhering rigidly to the text. I have purposely 
omitted whatever understanding may have been manifested by any 
person, however distinguished, other than the thirty-nine fathers 
who framed the original Constitution ; and, for the same reason, I 
have also omitted whatever uuderstanding may have been manifested 
by any of the " thirty-nine" even on any other phase of the general 
question of slavery. If we should look into their acts and declara- 
tions on those other phases, as the foreign slave-trade, and the 
morality and policy of slavery generally, it would appear to us that 
on the du-ect question of Federal control of slavery in Federal Terri- 
tories, the sixteen, if they had acted at all, would probably have acted 
just as the twenty-three did. Among that sixteen were several of 
the most noted antislavery men of those times, — as Dr. Franklin, 
Alexander Hamilton, and Gouverneur Morris, — while there was not 
one now known to have been otherwise, unless it may be John Rut- 
ledge, of South Carolina. 

The sum of the whole is that of our thirty-nine fathers who framed 
the original Constitution, twenty-one — a clear majority of the whole 
— certainly understood that no proper division of local from Federal 
authority, nor any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal 
Government to control slavery in the Federal Territories; while all 
the rest had probably the same understanding. Such, unquestiona- 
bly, was the understanding of our fathers who framed the original 
Constitution ; and the text affirms that they understood the question 
*' better than we." 

But, so far, I have been considering the understanding of the 
question manifested by the framers of the original Constitution. In 
and by the original instrument, a mode was provided for amending 
it; and, as I have already stated, the present frame of "the govern- 
ment under which we live" consists of that original, and twelve 
amendatory articles framed and adopted since. Those who now in- 
sist that Federal control of slavery in Federal Territories violates the 
Constitution, point us to the provisions which they suppose it thus 
violates ; and, as I understand, they aU fix upon provisions in these 
amendatory articles, and not in the original instrument. The Su- 
preme Court, in the Dred Scott case, plant themselves upon the fifth 
amendment, which provides that no person shall be deprived of " life, 
liberty, or property without due process of law"; while Senator 
Douglas and his peculiar adherents plant themselves upon the tenth 
amendment, providing that "the powers not delegated to the United 
States by the Constitution " "are reserved to the States respectively, 
or to the people." 

Now, it so happens that these amendments were framed by the first 
Congress which sat under the Constitution — the identical Congress 
which passed the act, already mentioned, enforcing the prohibition of 
slavery in the Northwestern Territory. Not only was it the same 



604 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Congress, but they were the identical, same individual men who, at 
the same session, and at the same time within the session, had under 
consideration, and in progress toward maturity, these constitutional 
amendments, and this act prohibiting slavery in all the territory the 
nation then owned. The constitutional amendments were intro- 
duced before, and passed after, the act enforcing the ordinance of 
'87; so that, during the whole pendency of the act to enforce the 
ordinance, the constitutional amendments were also pending. 

The seventy-six members of that Congress, including sixteen of 
the framers of the original Constitution, as before stated, were pre- 
eminently our fathers who framed that part of ''the government 
under which we live '' which is now claimed as forbidding the Federal 
Government to control slavery in the Federal Territories. 

Is it not a little presumptuous in any one at this day to affirm that 
the two things which that Congress deliberately framed, and carried 
to maturity at the same time, are absolutely inconsistent with each 
other? And does not such affirmation become impudently absurd 
when coupled with the other affirmation, from the same mouth, that 
those who did the two things alleged to be inconsistent, understood 
whether they really were inconsistent better than we — better than 
he who affirms thiit they are inconsistent? 

It is surely safe to assume that the thirty -nine framers of the origi- 
nal Constitution, and the seventy-six members of the Congress which 
framed the amendments thereto, taken together, do certainly include 
those who may be fairly called "our fathers who framed the gov- 
ernment under which we live." And so assuming, I defy any man 
to show that any one of them ever, in his whole life, declared that, in 
his understanding, any proper division of local from Federal au- 
thority, or any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal Covern- 
ment to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories, I go a step 
further. I defy any one to show that any living man in the whole 
world ever did, prior to the beginning of the present century (and 
I might almost say prior to the beginning of the last half of the 
present centur}'), declare that, in his understanding, anj^ proper di- 
vision of local from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitu- 
tion, forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in the 
Federal Territories, To those who now so declare I give not only 
''our fathers who framed the government under which we live," but 
with them all other living men within the century in which it was 
framed, among whom to search, and they shall not be able to find 
the evidence of a single man agi'eeing with them. 

Now, and here, let me guard a little against being misunderstood, 
I do not mean to say we are bound to follow implicitly in whatever 
our fathers did. To do so would be to discard all the lights of cur- 
rent experience — to reject all progress, all improvement. What I 
do say is that if we would supplant the opinions and policy of our 
fathers in any case, we should do so upon evidence so conclusive, 
and argument so clear, that even their great authority, fau'ly con- 
sidered and weighed, cannot stand ; and most surely not in a case 
whereof we ourselves declare they understood the question better 
than we. 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 605 

If any man at this day sincerely believes that a proper division of 
local from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbids 
the Federal Government to control as to slavery in the Federal Ter- 
ritories, he is right to say so, and to enforce his position by all truth- 
ful evidence and fair argument which he can. fJut he has no right 
to mislead others, who have less access to history, and less leisure to 
study it, into the false belief that " our fathers who framed the 
government under which we live " were of the same opinion — thus 
substituting falsehood and deception for truthful evidence and fair 
argument. If any man at this day sincerely believes '^ our fathers 
who framed the government under which we live " used and applied 
principles, in other cases, which ought to have led them to under- 
stand that a proper division of local from Federal authority, or some 
part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal Government to control 
as to slavery in the Federal Territories, he is right to say so. But he 
should, at the same time, brave the responsibility of declaring that, 
in his opinion, he understands their principles better tlian they did 
themselves ; and especially should he not shirk that responsibility 
by asserting that they ''understood the question just as well, and 
even better, than we do now." 

But enough! Let all who believe that "our fathers who framed 
the government under which we live understood this question just 
as well, and even better, than we do now," speak as they spoke, and 
act as they acted upon it. This is all Republicans ask — all Repub- 
licans desire — in relation to slavery. As those fathers marked it, 
so let it be again marked, as an evil not to be extended, but to be 
tolerated and protected only because of and so far as its actual pres- 
ence among us makes that toleration and protection a necessity. 
Let all the guaranties those fathers gave it be not grudgingly, but 
fuUy and fairly, maintained. For this Republicans contend, and 
with this, so far as I know or believe, they will be content. 

And now, if they would listen, — as I suppose they will not, — I 
would address a few words to the Southern people. 

I would say to them: You consider yourselves a reasonable and a 
just people ; and I consider that in the general qualities of reason 
and justice you are not inferior to any other people. Still, when you 
speak of us Republicans, you do so only to denounce us as reptiles, 
or, at the best, as no better than outlaws. You will grant a hearing 
to pirates or murderers, but nothing like it to " Black Republicans.'' 
In all your contentions with one another, each of 3'ou deems an un- 
conditional condemnation of " Black Republicanism '' as the first 
thing to be attended to. Indeed, such condemnation of us seems to 
be an indispensable prerequisite — license, so to speak — among you 
to be admitted or permitted to speak at all. Now can you or not 
be prevailed upon to pause and to consider whether this is quite just 
to us, or even to j^jurselves? Bring forward your charges and 
specifications, and then be patient long enough to hear us deny or 
justify. 

You say we are sectional. We deny it. That makes an issue; 
and the burden of proof is upon you. You produce your proof; and 
what is it ? Why, that our party has no existence in your section 



606 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

— gets no votes in your section. The fact is substantially true; but 
does it prove the issue ? If it does, then in case we should, without 
change of principle, be^in to get votes in yom* section, we should 
thereby cease to be sectional. You cannot escape this conclusion ; 
and yet, are you willing to abide by it ? If you are, you will prob- 
ably soon find that we have ceased to be sectional, for we shall get 
votes in your section this very year. You will then begin to dis- 
cover, as the truth plainly is, that your proof does not touch the 
issue. The fact that we get no votes in your section is a fact of your 
making, and not of ours. And if there be fault in that fact, that 
fault is primarily yours, and remains so until you show that we re- 
pel you by some wrong principle or practice. If we do repel you by 
any wrong principle or practice, the fault is ours ; but this brings 
you to where you ought to have started — to a discussion of the 
right or wrong of our principle. If our principle, put in practice, 
would wrong your section for the benefit of ours, or for any other 
object, then our principle, and we with it, are sectional, and are justly 
opposed and denounced as such. Meet us, then, on the question 
of whether our principle, put in practice, would wrong your section ; 
and so meet us as if it were possible that something may be said on 
our side. Do you accept the challenge? No ! Then you really be- 
lieve that the principle which " our fathers who framed the govern- 
ment under which we live" thought so clearly right as to adopt it, 
and indorse it again and again, upon their official oaths, is in fact 
so clearly wrong as to demand your condemnation without a mo- 
ment's consideration. 

Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning against 
sectional parties given by Washington in his Farewell Address. Less 
than eight years before Washington gave that warning, he had, as 
President of the United States, approved and signed an act of Con- 
gress enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Ter- 
ritory, which act embodied the policy of the government upon that 
subject up to and at the very moment he penned that warning; and 
about one year after he penned it, he wrote Lafayette that he 
considered that prohibition a wise measure, expressing in the same 
connection his hope that we should at some time have a confederacy 
of free States. 

Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionalism has since arisen 
upon this same subject, is that warning a weapon in your hands 
against us, or in our hands against you"? Could Washington him- 
self speak, would he cast the blame of that sectionalism upon us, who 
sustain his policy, or upon you, who repudiate it ? We respect that 
warning of Washington, and we commend it to you, together with 
his example pointing to the right application of it. 

But you say ycm are conservative — eminently conservative — 
while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. 
What is conservatism ? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, 
against the new and untried ? We stick to, contend for, the identical 
old policy on the point in controversy which was adopted by " our 
fathers who framed the government under which we live"; while 
you with one accord reject, and scout, and spit upon that old policy, 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 607 

and insist upon substituting something new. True, you disagi'ee 
among yourselves as to what that substitute shall be. You are 
divided on new propositions and plans, but you are unanimous in 
rejecting and denouncing- the old policy of the fathers. Some of you 
are for reviving the foreign slave-trade 5 some for a congressional 
slave code for the Territories ; some for Congress forbidding the 
Territories to prohibit slavery within their limits^ some for main- 
taiuing slavery in the Territories through the judiciary; some for 
the '' gnr-reat pur-rinciple " that " if one man would enslave another, 
no third man should object," fantastically called "popular sover- 
eignty " ; but never a man among you is in favor of Federal prohibition 
of slavery in Federal Territories, according to the practice of " our 
fathers who framed the government under which we live." Not one 
of all your various plans can show a precedent or an advocate in the 
century within which our government originated. Consider, then, 
whether your claim of conservatism for yourselves, and your charge 
of destructiveness against us, are based on the most clear and stable 
foundations. 

Again, you say we have made the slavery question more prominent 
than it formerly was. We deny it. We admit that it is more promi- 
nent, but we deny that we made it so. It was not we, but you, who 
discarded the old policy of the fathers. We resisted, and still resist, 
your innovation ; and thence comes the greater prominence of the 
question. Would you have that question reduced to its former pro- 
portions ? Go back to that old policy. What has been will be again, 
under the same conditions. If you would have the peace of the old 
times, readopt the precepts and policy of the old times. 

You charge that we stir up insurrections among your slaves. We 
deny it ; and what is your proof? Harper's Ferry ! John Brown ! ! 
John Brown was no Republican ; and you have failed to implicate a 
single Republican in his Harper's Ferry enterprise. If any member 
of our party is guilty in that matter, you know it, or you do not know 
it. If you do know it, you are inexcusable for not designating the 
man and proving the fact. If you do not know it, you are inexcus- 
able for asserting it, and especially for persisting in the assertion 
after you have tried and failed to make the proof. You need not be 
told that persisting in a charge which one does not know to be true, 
is simply malicious slander. 

Some of you admit that no Republican designedly aided or encour- 
aged the Harpei-'s Ferry affair, but still insist that our doctrines and 
declarations necessarily lead to such results. We do not believe it. 
We know we hold no doctrine, and make no declaration, which were 
not held to and made by " our fathers who framed the government 
under which we live." You never dealt fairly by us in relation to 
this affair. When it occurred, some important State elections were 
near at hand, and you were in evident glee with the belief that, by 
charging the blame upon us, you could get an advantage of us in 
those elections. The elections came, and your expectations were not 
quite fulfilled. Every Republican man knew that, as to himself at 
least, your charge was a slander, and he was not much inclined by 
it to cast his vote in your favor. Republican doctrines and declara- 



608 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

tious are accompanied with a continual protest against any inter- 
ference whatever with your slaves, or with you about your slaves. 
Surely, this does not encourage them to revolt. True, we do, in 
common with '' our fathers who framed the government under 
which we live," declare our belief that slavery is wrong; but the 
slaves do not hear us declare even this. For anything we say or do, 
the slaves would scarcely know there is a Republican party. I be- 
lieve they would not, in fact, generally know it but for your misrep- 
resentations of us ill their hearing. In your political contests 
among yourselves, each faction charges the other with sympathy 
with Black Republicanism; and then, to give point to the charge, 
defines Black Republicanism to simply be insurrection, blood, and 
thunder among the slaves. 

Slave insurrections are no more common now than they were be- 
fore the Republican party was organized. What induced the South- 
ampton insurrection, twenty-eight years ago, in which at least three 
times as many lives were lost as at Harper's Ferry f You can scarcely 
stretch your very elastic fancy to the conclusion that Southampton 
was " got up by Black Republicanism." In the present state of things 
in the United States, I do not think a general, or even a very exten- 
sive, slave insurrection is possible. The indispensable concert of 
action cannot be attained. The slaves have no means of rapid 
communication ; nor can incendiary freemen, black or white, sup- 
ply it. The explosive materials are everywhere in parcels; but 
there neither are, nor can be supplied, the indispensable connecting 
trains. 

Much is said by Southern people about the affection of slaves for 
their masters and mistresses ; and a part of it, at least, is true. A 
plot for an uprising could scarcely be devised and communicated to 
twenty individuals before some one of them, to save the life of a 
favorite master or mistress, would divulge it. This is the rule; and 
the slave revolution in Hayti was not an exception to it, but a case 
occurring under peculiar circumstances. The gunpowder plot of 
British history, though not connected with slaves, was more in point. 
In that case, only about twenty were admitted to the secret; and yet 
one of them, in liis anxiety to save a friend, betrayed the plot to that 
friend, and, by consequence, averted the calamity. Occasional poi- 
sonings from the kitchen, and open or stealthy assassinations in the 
field, and local revolts extending to a score or so, will continue to 
occur as the natural results of slavery ; but no general insurrection 
of slaves, as I think, can happen in this country for a long time. 
Whoever much fears, or much hopes, for such an event, will be alike 
disappointed. 

In the language of Mr. Jefferson, uttered many years ago, *' It is 
still in our })ower to direct the process of emancipation and depof- 
tation peaceably, and in such slow degi*ees, as that the evil will wear 
off insensibly; and tlieir places be, pari passu, filled up by free white 
laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to force itself on, human nature 
must shudder at the prospect held up." 

Mr. Jefferson did not mean to say, nor do I, that the power of 
emancipation is in the Federal Government. He spoke of Virginia; 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 609 

and, as to the power of emancipation, I speak of the slavehokUng 
States only. The Federal Government, however, as we insist, has the 
power of restraining the extension of the institution — the power to 
insure that a slave insurrection shall never occur on any American 
soil which is now fi'ee from slavery. 

John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a slave insurrection. 
It was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt among slaves, in 
which the slaves refused to participate. In fact, it was so absurd 
that the slaves, with all their ignorance, saw plainly enough it could 
not succeed. That affair, in its philosophy, corresponds with the 
many attempts, related in history, at the assassination of kings and 
emperors. An enthusiast broods over the oppression of a people till 
he fancies himself commissioned by Heaven to liberate them. He 
ventures the attempt, which ends in little else than his own execution. 
Orsini's attempt on Louis Napoleon, and John Brown's attempt at 
Harper's Ferry, were, in their philosophy, precisely the same. The 
eagerness to cast blame on old England in the one case, and on New 
England in the other, does not disprove the sameness of the two 
things. 

And how much would it avail you, if you could, by the use of 
John Brown, Helper's Book, and the like, break up the Republican 
organization? Human action can be modified to some extent, but 
human nature cannot be changed. There is a judgment and a feel- 
ing against slavery in this nation, which cast at least a million and 
a half of votes. You cannot destroy that judgment and feeling — 
that sentiment — by breaking up the political organization which 
rallies around it. You can scarcely scatter and disperse an army 
which has been formed into order in the face of your heaviest fire; 
but if you could, how much would you gain by forcing the sentiment 
which created it out of the peaceful channel of the ballot-box into 
some other channel ? What would that other channel probably be 1 
Would the number of John Browns be lessened or enlarged by the 
operation"? 

But you will break up the Union rather than submit to a denial of 
your constitutional rights. 

That has a somewhat reckless sound; but it would be palliated, if 
not fully justified, were we proposing, by the mere force of numbers, 
to deprive you of some right plainly written down in the Constitution. 
But we are proposing no such thing. 

When you make these declarations you have a specific and well- 
understood allusion to an assumed constitutional right of yours to 
take slaves into the Federal Territories, and to hold them there as 
property. But no such right is specifically written in the Constitu- 
tion. That instrument is literally silent about any such right. We, 
on the contrary, deny that such a right has any existence in the 
Constitution, even by implication. 

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you wiU destroy the 
government, unless you be allowed to construe and force the Consti- 
tution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. 
You will rule or ruin in all events. 

This, plainly stated, is your language. Perhaps you will say the 
Vol. I.— 39 



610 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Supreme Court has decided the disputed constitutional question in 
your favor. Not quite so. But waiving the lawyer's distinction 
between dictum and decision, the court has decided the question 
for you in a sort of way. The court has substantially said, it is 
your constitutional right to take slaves into the Federal Territories, 
and to hold them there as property. When I say the decision was 
made in a sort of way, I mean it was made in a divided court, by a 
bare majority of the judges, and they not quite agreeing with one 
another in the reasons for making it ; that it is so made as that its 
avowed supporters disagree with one another about its meaning, and 
that it was mainly based upon a mistaken statement of fact — the 
statement in the opinion that " the right of property in a slave is 
distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution." 

An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right of prop- 
erty in a slave is not " distinctly and expressly affirmed " in it. Bear 
in mind, the judges do not pledge their judicial opinion that such 
right is impliedly affirmed in the Constitution ; but they pledge their 
veracity that it is '^ distinctly and expressly" affirmed there — "dis- 
tinctly," that is, not mingled with anything else — " expressly," that 
is, in words meaning just that, without the aid of any inference, and 
susceptible of no other meaning. 

If they had only pledged their judicial opinion that such right is 
affirmed in the instrument by implication, it would be open to others 
to show that neither the word " slave " nor '^ slavery " is to be found 
in the Constitution, nor the word '' property " even, in any connection 
with language alluding to the things slave, or slavery; and that 
wherever in that instrument the slave is alluded to, he is called a 
"person"; and wherever his master's legal right in relation to him 
is alluded to, it is spoken of as " service or labor which may be due " 
— as a debt payable in service or labor. Also it would be open to 
show, by contemporaneous history, that this mode of alluding to 
slaves and slavery, instead of speaking of them, was employed on 
purpose to exclude from the Constitution the idea that there could 
be property in man. 

To show all tbis is easy and certain. 

When this obvious mistake of the judges shall be brought to their 
notice, is it not reasonable to expect that they will withdraw the mis- 
taken statement, and reconsider the conclusion based upon it ? 

And then it is to be remembered that " our fathers who framed 
the government under which we live " — the men who made the Con- 
stitution — decided this same constitutional question in our favor 
long ago : decided it without division among themselv^es when mak- 
ing the decision; without division among themselves about the 
meaning of it after it was made, and, so far as any evidence is left, 
without basing it upon any mistaken statement of facts. 

Under all these circumstances, do you really feel yourselves justified 
to break up this government unless such a court decision as yours is 
shall be at once submitted to as a conclusive and final rule of polit- 
ical action ? But you will not abide the election of a Republican 
president ! In that supposed event, you say, you will destroy the 
Union ; and then, you say, the great crime of having destroyed it 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 611 

will be upon us ! That is cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my 
ear, and mutters through his teeth, *' Stand and deliver, or I shall 
kill you, and then you will be a murderer ! " 

To be sure, what the robber demanded of me — my money — was 
my own ; and I had a clear right to keep it ; but it was no more my 
own than my vote is my own; and the threat of death to me, to ex- 
tort my money, and the threat of destruction to the Union, to extort 
my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in principle. 

A few words now to Republicans. It is exceedingly desirable that 
all parts of this great Confederacy shall be at peace, and in harmony 
one with another. Let us Republicans do our part to have it so. 
Even though much provoked, let us do nothing through passion and 
ill temper. Even though the Southern people will not so much as 
listen to us, let us calmly consider their demands, and yield to them 
if, in our deliberate view of our duty, we possibly can. Judging by 
all they say and do, and by the subject and natui-e of their contro- 
versy with us, let us determine, if we can, what will satisfy them. 

Will they be satisfied if the Territories be unconditionally sur- 
rendered to them ? We know they will not. In all their present 
complaints against us, the Territories are scarcely mentioned. In- 
vasions and insurrections are the rage now. WiU it satisfy them 
if, in the future, we have nothing to do with invasions and insur- 
rections ? We know it wiU not. We so know, because we know we 
never had anything to do with invasions and insurrections ; and yet 
this total abstaining does not exempt us from the charge and the 
denunciation. 

The question recurs. What wiU satisfy them ? Simply this : we 
must not only let them alone, but we must somehow convince them 
that we do let them alone. This, we know by experience, is no 
easy task. We have been so trying to convince them from the very 
beginning of our organization, but with no success. In all our plat- 
forms and speeches we have constantly protested our purpose to let 
them alone ; but this has had no tendency to convince them. Alike 
unavailing to convince them is the fact that they have never detected 
a man of us in any attempt to disturb them. 

These natural and apparently adequate means all failing, what 
will convince them ? This, and this only : cease to call slavery wrong, 
and join them in calling it right. And this must be done thoroughly 
— done in acts as well as in words. Silence will not be tolerated — 
we must place ourselves avowedly with them. Senator Douglas's 
new sedition law must be enacted and enforced, suppressing all dec- 
larations that slavery is wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, 
in pulpits, or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive 
slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our free-State con- 
stitutions. The whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all taint 
of opposition to slavery, before they wUl cease to believe that all 
their troubles proceed from us. 

I am quite aware they do not state their case precisely in this way. 
Most of them would probably say to us, " Let us alone ; do nothing 
to us, and say what you please about slavery." But we do let 
them alone, — have never disturbed them, — so that, after all, it is 



612 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

what we say which dissatisfies them. They will continue to accuse 
us of doing, until we cease saying. 

I am also aware they have not as yet in terms demanded the 
overthrow of our free-State constitutions. Yet those constitutions 
declai-e the wrong of slavery with more solemn emphasis than do all 
other sayings against it ; and when all these other sayings shall have 
been silenced, the overthrow of these constitutions will be demanded, 
and nothing be left to resist the demand. It is nothing to the con- 
trary that they do not demand the whole of this just now. Demand- 
ing what they^ do, and for the reason they do, they can voluntarily 
stop nowhere short of this consummation. Holding, as they do, 
that slavery is morally right and socially elevating, they cannot 
cease to demand a full national recognition of it as a legal right 
and a social blessing. 

Nor can we justifiably withhold this on any ground save our con- 
viction that slavery is wrong. If slavery is right, all words, acts, 
laws, and constitutions against it are themselves wrong, and should 
be silenced and swept away. If it is right, we cannot justly object 
to its nationality — its universality ; if it is wrong, they cannot justly 
insist upon its extension — its enlargement. All they ask we could 
readily grant, if we thought slavery right; all we ask they could as 
readily grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right and 
our thinking it wrong is the precise fact upon which depends the 
whole controversy. Thinking it right, as they do, they are not to 
blame for desiring its full recognition as being right; but thinking 
it wrong, as we do, can we yield to them ? Can we cast our votes 
with their view, and against our own ? In view of our moral, 
social, and political responsibilities, can we do this ? 

Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone 
where it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from 
its actual presence in the nation ; but can we, while our votes will 
prevent it, allow it to spread into the national Territories, and to 
overrun us here in these free States ? If our sense of duty forbids 
this, then let us stand by our duty fearlessly and effectively. Let 
us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith 
we are so industriously plied and belabored — contrivances such as 
groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong : 
vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man 
nor a dead man; such as a policy of "don't care" on a question 
about which all true men do care; such as Union appeals beseeching 
true Union men to yield to Disunionists, reversing the divine rule, 
and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to repentance; such 
as invocations to Washington, imploring men to unsay what Wash- 
ington said and undo what Washington did. 

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations 
against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the 
government, nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that 
right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our 
duty as we understand it. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 613 



March 5, 1860. — Abstract op Speech at Hartford, Conn. 

Slavery is the great political question of the nation. Though all 
desire its settlement, it still remains the all-pervading question of 
the day. It has been so especially for the past six years. It is in- 
deed older than the Revolution — rising, subsiding, then rising again, 
till '54, since which time it has been constantly augmenting. Those 
who occasioned the Lecompton imbroglio now admit that they see 
no end to it. It had been their cry that the vexed question was just 
about to be settled — " the tail of this hideous creature is just going 
out of sight." That cry is played out, and has ceased. 

Why, when all desire to have this controversy settled, can we not 
settle it satisfactorily? One reason is, we want it settled in dif- 
ferent ways. Each faction has a different plan — they pull different 
ways, and neither has a decided majority. In my humble opinion, 
the importance and magnitude of the question is unden-ated, even 
by our wisest men. If I be right, the first thing is to get a just esti- 
mate of the evil ; then we can provide a cure. 

One sixth, and a little more, of the population of the United States 
are slaves, looked upon as property, as nothing but property. The 
cash value of these slaves, at a moderate estimate, is $2,000,000,000. 
This amount of property value has a vast influence on the minds of 
its owners, very naturally. The same amount of property would 
have an equal influence upon us if owned in the North. Human 
nature is the same — people at the South are the same as those at 
the North, barring the difference in circumstances. Public opinion 
is founded, to a great extent, on a property basis. What lessens the 
value of property is opposed ; what enhances its value is favored. 
Public opinion at the South regards slaves as property, and insists 
upon treating them like other property. 

On the other hand, the free States carry on their government on 
the principle of the equality of men. We think slavery is morally 
wrong, and a direct violation of that principle. We aU think it 
wrong. It is clearly proved, I think, by natural theology, apart 
from revelation. Every man, black, white, or yellow, has a mouth 
to be fed, and two hands with which to feed it — and bread should 
be allowed to go to that mouth without controversy. 

Slavery is wrong in its effect upon white people and free labor. 
It is the only thing that threatens the Union. It makes what Sen- 
ator Seward has been much abused for calling an ^'ii'repressible 
conflict." When they get ready to settle it, we hope they will let 
us know. Public opinion settles every question here; any policy to 
be permanent must have public opinion at the bottom — something 
in accordance with the philosophy of the human mind as it is. 
The property basis will have its weight. The love of property and 
a consciousness of right or wrong liave conflicting places in our 
organization, which often make a man's course seem crooked, his 
conduct a riddle. 

Some men would make it a question of indifference, neither right 
nor wrong, merely a question of doUars and cents; — the Almighty 



614 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

has drawn a line across the land, below which it must be cultivated 
by slave labor, above which by fi-ee labor. They would say: "If 
the question is between the white man and the negro, I am for the 
white man: if between the negro and the crocodile, I am for the 
negro." There is a strong effort to make this policy of indifference 
prevail, but it cannot be a durable one. A "don't care" policy won't 
prevail, for everybody does care. 

Is there a Democrat, especiallv one of the Douglas wing, but will 
declare that the Declaration of Independence has no application to 
the negro? It would be safe to offer a moderate premium for such 
a man. I have asked this question in large audiences where they 
were in the habit of answering right out, but no one would say 
otherwise. Not one of them said it five years ago. I never heard 
it till I heard it from the lips of Judge Douglas. True, some men 
boldly took the bull by the horns and said the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was not true ! They did n't sneak around the question. 
I say I heard first from Douglas that the Declaration did not apply 
to the black man. Not a man of them said it till then — they all say 
it now. This is a long stride toward establishing the policy of 
indifference — one more such stride, I think, would do it. 

The proposition that there is a struggle between the white man 
and the negro contains a falsehood. There is no struggle. If there 
was, I should be for the white man. If two men are adrift at sea 
on a plank which wiU bear up but one, the law justifies either in 
pushing the other off. I never had to struggle to keep a negro from 
enslaving me, nor did a negro ever have to fight to keep me from 
enslaving him. They say, between the crocodile and the negro, 
they go for the negro. The logical proportion is, therefore, as a 
white man is to a negro, so is a negro to a crocodile, or as a negi'O 
may treat the crocodile, so the white man may treat the negro. The 
"don't care" policy leads just as surely to nationalizing slavery as 
Jeff Davis himself, but the doctrine is more dangerous because 
more insidious. 

If the Republicans, who think slavery is wrong, get possession of 
the General Government, we may not root out the evil at once, but 
may at least prevent its extension. If I find a venomous snake lying 
on the open prairie, I seize the first stick and kiU him at once; but 
if that snake is in bed with my children, I must be more cautious; — 
I shall, in striking the snake, also strike the children, or arouse the 
reptile to bite the children. Slavery is the venomous snake in bed 
with the children. But if the question is whether to kill it on the 
prairie or put it in bed with other children, I am inclined to think 
we 'd kill it. 

Another illustration. When for the first time I met Mr. Clay, the 
other day in the cars, in front of us sat an old gentleman with an 
enormous wen upon his neck. Everybody would say the wen was 
a great evil, and would cause the man's death after a while; but you 
could n't cut it out, for he 'd bleed to death in a minute. But would 
you ingraft the seeds of that wen on the necks of sound and healthy 
men ? He must endure and be patient, hoping for possible relief. 
The wen represents slavery on the neck of this country. This only 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 615 

applies to those who think slavery is wrong. Those who think it 
right would consider the snake a jewel and the wen an ornament. 

We want those Democrats who think slavery wrong, to quit 
voting with those who think it right. They don't treat it as they 
do other wrongs — they won't oppose it in the free States, for it 
is n't there ; nor in the slave States, for it is there ; — don't want it in 
politics, for it makes agitation ; not in the pulpit, for it is n't reli- 
gion; not in a tract society, for it makes a fuss — there is no place 
for its discussion. Are they quite consistent in this ? 

If those Democrats really think slavery wrong, they will be much 
pleased when earnest men in the slave States take up a plan of 
gradual emancipation, and go to work energetically and very kindly 
to get rid of the evil. Now let us test them. Frank Blair tried it ; 
and he ran for Congress in '58, and got beaten. Did the Democracy 
feel bad about it ? I reckon not. I guess you all flung up your hats 
and shouted, " Hurrah for the Democracy!" 

He went on to speak of the manner in which slavery was treated 
by the Constitution. The word " slave " is nowhere used ; the supply 
of slaves was to be prohibited after 1808 ; they stopped the spread 
of it in the Territories ; seven of the States abolished it. He argued 
very conclusively that it was then regarded as an evil which would 
eventually be got rid of, and that they desired, once rid of it, to have 
nothing in the Constitution to remind them of it. The Republicans 
go back to first principles, and deal with it as a wrong. Mason, of 
Virginia, said openly that the framers of our government were anti- 
slavery. Hammond, of South Carolina, said, " Washington set this 
evil example." Bully Brooks said, "At the time the Constitution 
was formed, no one supposed slavery would last till now." We stick 
to the policy of our fathers. 

The Democracy are given to bushwhacking. After having their 
errors and misstatements continually thrust in their faces, they pay 
no heed, but go on howling about Seward and the " irrepressible con- 
flict." That is bushwhacking. So with John Brown and Harper's 
Ferry. They charge it upon the Republican party, and ignomini- 
ously fail in all attempts to substantiate the charge. Yet they go 
on with their bushwhacking, the pack in full cry after John Brown. 
The Democrats had just been whipped in Ohio and Pennsylvania, 
and seized upon the unfortunate Harper's Ferry affair to influence 
other elections then pending. They said to each other, " Jump in ; 
now 's your chance"; and were soriy there were not more killed. 
But they did n't succeed well. Let them go on with their howling. 
They will succeed when by slandering women you get them to love 
you, and by slandering men you get them to vote for you. 

Mr. Lincoln then took up the Massachusetts shoemakers' strike, 
treating it in a humorous and philosophical manner, and exposing to 
ridicule the foolish pretense of Senator Douglas — that the strike 
arose from " this unfortunate sectional warfare." Mr, Lincoln thanked 
God that we have a system of labor where there can be a strike. 
Whatever the pressure, there is a point where the workman may 
stop. He did n't pretend to be familiar with the subject of the shoe 



616 ADDEESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

strike — probably knew as little about it as Senator Douglas him- 
self. Shall we stop making war upon the South ? We never have 
made war upon them. If any one has, he had better go and hang 
himself and save Virginia the trouble. If you give up your convic- 
tions and call slavery right, as they do, you let slavery in upon you 
— instead of white laborers who can strike, you '11 soon have black 
laborers who can't strike. 

I have heard that in consequence of this " sectional warfare," as 
Douglas calls it. Senator Mason, of Virginia, had appeared in a suit 
of homespun. Now, up in New Hampshire, the woolen and cotton 
mills are all busy, and there is no strike — they are busy making the 
very goods Senator Mason has quit buying ! To carry out his idea, 
he ought to go barefoot ! If that 's the plan, they should begin at 
the foundation, and adopt the well-known " Georgia costume" of a 
shirt-coUar and pair of spurs. 

It reminded him of the man who had a poor, old, lean, bony, 
spavined horse, with swelled legs. He was asked what he was going 
to do with such a miserable beast — the poor creature would die. 
" Do!" said he. ^' I 'm going to fat him up ; don't you see that I have 
got him seal fat as high as the knees ? " Well, they have got the 
Union dissolved up to the ankle, but no further ! 

All portions of this Confederacy should act in harmony and with 
careful deliberation. The Democrats cry " John Brown invasion." 
We are guiltless of it, but our denial does not satisfy them. Nothing 
win satisfy them but disinfecting the atmosphere entirely of all op- 
position to slavery. They have not demanded of us to yield the 
guards of liberty in our State constitutions, but it will naturally come 
to that after a while. If we give up to them, we cannot refuse even 
their utmost request. If slavery is right, it ought to be extended ; 
if not, it ought to be restricted — there is no middle ground. Wrong 
as we think it, we can afford to let it alone where it of necessity now 
exists ; but we cannot afford to extend it into free territory and 
around our own homes. Let us stand against it ! 

The ''Union" arrangements are aU a humbug — they reverse the 
scriptural order, calKng the righteous, and not sinners, to repentance. 
Let us not be slandered or intimidated to turn from our duty. Eter- 
nal right makes might ; as we understand our duty, let us do it ! 



March 6, I860.— Speech at New Haven, Conn. 

Mr. President and Fellow-citizens of New Raven: It the Republi- 
can party of this nation shall ever have the national house in- 
trusted to its keeping, it will be the duty of that party to attend 
to aU the affairs of national housekeeping. Whatever matters of 
importance may come up, whatever difficulties may arise, in the 
way of its administration of the government, that partj^ will then 
have to attend to: it will then be compelled to attend to other ques- 
tions besides this question which now assumes an overwhelming 
importance — the question of slavery. It is true that in the organi- 
zation of the Republican party this question of slavery was more 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 617 

important than any other; indeed, so much more important has it 
become that no other national question can even get a hearing just 
at present. The old question of tariff — a matter that will remain 
one of the chief affairs of national housekeeping to all time; the 
question of the management of financial affairs; the question of 
the disposition of the public domain : how shall it be managed for 
the purpose of getting it well settled, and of making there the homes 
of a free and happy people — these will remain open and require 
attention for a great while yet, and these questions will have to 
be attended to by whatever party has the control of the govern- 
ment. Yet just now they cannot even obtain a hearing, and I do 
not purpose to detain you upon these topics, or what sort of hear- 
ing they should have when opportunity shall come. For whether 
we will or not, the question of slavery is the question, the all- 
absorbing topic, of the day. It is true that all of us — and by that 
I mean not the Republican party alone, but the whole American 
people here and elsewhere — all of us wish this question settled; 
wish it out of the way. It stands in the way and prevents the 
adjustment and the giving of necessary attention to other questions 
of national housekeeping. The people of the whole nation agree 
that this question ought to be settled, and yet it is not settled ; and 
the reason is that they are not yet agreed how it shall be settled. 
All wish it done, but some wish one way and some another, and 
some a third, or fourth, or fifth ; different bodies are pulling in 
different directions, and none of them having a decided majority 
are able to accomplish the common object. 

In the beginning of the year 1854, a new policy was inaugurated 
with the avowed object and confident promise that it would entirely 
and forever put an end to the slavery agitation. It was again and 
again declared that under this policy, when once successfully estab- 
lished, the country would be forever rid of this whole question. Yet 
under the operation of that policy this agitation has not only not 
ceased, but it has been constantly augmented. And this, too, although 
from the day of its introduction its friends, who promised that it 
would wholly end aU agitation, constantly insisted, down to the time 
that the Lecompton bill was introduced, that it was working admira- 
bly, and that its inevitable tendency was to remove the question for- 
ever from the politics of the country. Can you call to mind any 
Democratic speech, made after the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
down to the time of the Lecompton bill, in which it was not predicted 
that the slavery agitation was just at an end; that "the Abolition 
excitement was played out,'' " the Kansas question was dead," ''they 
have made the most they can out of this question and it is now for- 
ever settled"? But since the Lecompton bill, no Democrat within 
my experience has ever pretended that he could see the end. That 
crj^ has been dropped. They themselves do not pretend now that 
the agitation of this subject has come to an end yet. The truth is 
that this question is one of national importance, and we cannot help 
dealing with it; we must do something about it, whether we will or 
not. We cannot avoid it; the subject is one we cannot avoid con. 
sidering; we can no more avoid it than a man can live without eat- 



618 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

ing. It is upon us; it attaches to the body politic as much and as 
closely as the natural wants attach to our natural bodies. Now I 
think it important that this matter should be taken up in earnest 
and really settled. And one way to bring about a true settlement of 
the question is to understand its true magnitude. 

There have been many efforts to settle it. Again and again it has 
been fondly hoped that it was settled, but every time it breaks out 
afresh, and more violently than ever. It was settled, our fathers 
hoped, by the Missouri Compromise, but it did not stay settled. 
Then the compromises of 1850 were declared to be a full and final 
settlement of the question. The two great parties, each in national 
convention, adopted resolutions declaring that the settlement made 
by the compromise of 1850 was a finality — that it would last for- 
ever. Yet how long before it was unsettled again ? It broke out 
again in 1854, and blazed higher and raged more fui'iously than ever 
before, and the agitation has not rested since. 

These repeated settlements must have some fault about them. 
There must be some inadequacy in their very nature to the purpose 
for which they were designed. We can only speculate as to where 
that fault — that inadequac}^ is, but we may perhaps profit by past 
experience. 

I think that one of the causes of these repeated failures is that our 
best and greatest men have greatly underestimated the size of this 
question. They have constantly brought forward small cures for 
great sores — plasters too smaU to cover the wound. That is one 
reason that all settlements have proved so temporary, so evanescent. 

Look at the magnitude of this subject. One sixth of our popula- 
tion, in round numbers — not quite one sixth, and yet more than a 
seventh — about one sixth of the whole population of the United 
States, are slaves. The owners of these slaves consider them prop- 
erty. The effect upon the minds of the owners is that of property, and 
nothing else ; it induces them to insist upon all that will favorably 
affect its value as property, to demand laws and institutions and a 
public policy that shall increase and secure its value, and make it 
durable, lasting, and universal. The effect on the minds of the 
owners is to persuade them that there is no wrong in it. The slave- 
holder does not like to be considered a mean f eUow for holding that 
species of property, and hence he has to struggle within himself, and 
sets about arguing himself into the belief that slavery is right. The 
property influences his mind. The dissenting minister who argued 
some theological point with one of the established church was always 
met by the reply, "I can't see it so." He opened the Bible and 
pointed him to a passage, but the orthodox minister replied, " I can't 
see it so." Then he showed him a single word — " Can you see that?" 
" Yes, I see it," was the reply. The dissenter laid a guinea over the 
word, and asked, "Do you see it now?" So here. Whether the 
owners of this species of property do really see it as it is, it is not 
for me to say ; but if they do, thej^ see it as it is through two billions 
of dollars, and that is a pretty thick coating. Certain it is that they 
do not see it as we see it. Certain it is that this two thousand mil- 
lion of dollars invested in this species of property is all so concen- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 619 

trated that the mind can grasp it at once. This immense pecuniary 
interest has its influence upon their minds. 

But here in Connecticut and at the North slavery does not exist, 
and we see it through no such medium. To us it appears natural to 
think that slaves are human beings; men, not property; that some 
of the things, at least, stated about men in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence apply to them as well as to us. I say we think, most of 
us, that this charter of freedom applies to the slave as well as to 
ourselves ; that the class of arguments put forward to batter down 
that idea are also calculated to break down the very idea of free 
government, even for white men, and to undermine the very founda- 
tions of free society. "We think slavery a great moral wrong, and 
while we do not claim the right to touch it where it exists, we wish 
to treat it as a wrong in the Territories, where our votes will reach it. 
We think that a respect for ourselves, a regard for future generations 
and for the God that made us, require that we put down this wrong 
where our votes will properly reach it. We think that species of 
labor an injury to free white men — in short, we think slavery a 
great moral, social, and political evil, tolerable only because, and so 
far as, its actual existence makes it necessary to tolerate it, and that 
beyond that it ought to be treated as a wrong. 

Now these two ideas — the property idea that slavery is right and 
the idea that it is wrong — come into collision, and do actually pro- 
duce that irrepressible conflict which Mr. Seward has been so roundly 
abused for mentioning. The two ideas conflict, and must forever 
conflict. 

Again, in its political aspect does anything in any way endanger 
the perpetuity of this Union but that single thing — slavery? Many 
of our adversaries are anxious to claim that they are specially de- 
voted to the Union, and take pains to charge upon us hostility to 
the Union. Now we claim that we are the only true Union men, 
and we put to them this one proposition : What ever endangered 
this Union save and except slavery? Did any other thing ever 
cause a moment's fear ? All men must agree that this thing alone 
has ever endangered the perpetuity of the Union. But if it was 
threatened by any other influence, would not all men say that the 
best thing that could be done, if we could not or ought not to destroy 
it, would be at least to keep it from growing any larger? Can any 
man believe that the way to save the Union is to extend and in- 
crease the only thing that threatens the Union, and to suffer it to 
grow bigger and bigger ? 

Whenever this question shall be settled, it must be settled on some 
philosophical basis. No policy that does not rest upon philosophical 
public opinion can be permanently maintained. And hence there are 
but two policies in regard to slavery that can be at all maintained. 
The first, based on the property view that slavery is right, con- 
forms to that idea throughout, and demands that we shall do every- 
thing for it that we ought to do if it were right. We must sweep 
away all opposition, for opposition to the right is wrong; we must 
agree that slavery is right, and we must adopt the idea that prop- 
erty has persuaded the owner to believe, that slavery is morally right 



620 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and socially elevating. This gives a philosophical basis for a per- 
manent policy of encouragement. 

The other policy is one that squares with the idea that slavery is 
wrong, and it consists in doing everything that we ought to do if it 
is wrong. Now I don't wish to be misunderstood, nor to leave a gap 
down to be misrepresented, even. I don't mean that we ought to 
attack it where it exists. To me it seems that if we were to form 
a government anew, in view of the actual presence of slavery we 
should find it necessary to frame just such a government as our 
fathers did: gi\dng to the slaveholder the entire control where the 
system was established, while we possess the power to restrain it 
from going outside those limits. From the necessities of the case 
we should be compelled to form just such a government as our 
blessed fathers gave us; and surely if they have so made it, that 
adds another reason why we should let slavery alone where it exists. 

If I saw a venomous snake crawling in the road, any man would 
say I might seize the nearest stick and kill it ; but if I found that 
snake in bed with my childi*en, that would be another question. I 
might hurt the children more than the snake, and it might bite them. 
Much more, if I found it in bed with my neighbor's children, and I 
had bound myself by a solemn compact not to meddle with his 
children under any circumstances, it would become me to let that 
particular mode of getting rid of the gentleman alone. But if there 
was a bed newly made up, to which the children were to be taken, 
and it was proposed to take a batch of young snakes and put 
them there with them, I take it no man would say there was any 
question how I ought to decide ! 

That is just the case. The new Territories are the newly made 
bed to which our children are to go, and it lies with the nation to 
say whether they shall have snakes mixed up with them or not. It 
does not seem as if there could be much hesitation what our policy 
should be. 

Now I have spoken of a policy based on the idea that slavery is 
wrong, and a policy based upon the idea that it is right. But an 
effort has been made for a policy that shall treat it as neither 
right nor wrong. It is based upon utter indifference. Its lead- 
ing advocate has said: ^' I don't care whether it be voted up or down." 
'' It is merely a matter of dollars and cents." " The Almighty has 
drawn a line across this continent, on one side of which all soil must 
forever be cultivated by slave labor, and on the other by free." 
" When the struggle is between the white man and the negro, I am 
for the white man; when it is between the negro and the crocodile, 
I am for the negro." Its central idea is indifference. It holds that 
it makes no more difference to us whether the Territories become 
free or slave States, than whether my neighbor stocks his farm with 
horned cattle or puts it into tobacco. All recognize this policy, the 
plausible sugar-coated name of which is " popular sovereignty." 

This policy chiefly stands in the way of a permanent settlement of 
the question. I believe there is no danger of its becoming the per- 
manent policy of the country, for it is based on a public indifference. 
There is nobody that "don't care." AH the people do care, one way 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 621 

or the other. I do not charge that its author, when he says he 
"don't care," states his individual opinion; he ouly expresses his 
policy for the government. I understand that he has never said, as 
an individual, whether he thought slavery right or wrong — and he is 
the only man in the nation that has not. Now such a policy may 
have a temporary run ; it may spring up as necessary to the political 
prospects of some gentleman — but it is utterly baseless ; the people 
are not indifferent, and it can therefore have no durability or per- 
manence. 

But suppose it could ! Then it can be maintained only by a pub- 
lic opinion that shall say, '^ We don't care," There must be a change 
in public opinion ; the public mind must be so far debauched as to 
square with this policy of caring not at all. The people must come 
to consider this as " merely a question of dollars and cents," and to 
believe that in some places the Almighty has made slavery necessarily 
eternal. This policy can be brought to prevail if the people can be 
brought round to say honestly, " We don't care " ; if not, it can never 
be maintained. It is for you to say whether that can be done. 

You are ready to say it cannot ; but be not too fast. Remember 
what a long stride has been taken since the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise! Do you know of any Democrat, of either branch of 
the party — do you know one who declares that he believes that 
the Declaration of Independence has any application to the negro? 
Judge Taney declares that it has not, and Judge Douglas even vili- 
fies me personally and scolds me roundly for saying that the Decla- 
ration applies to all men, and that negroes are men. Is there a 
Democrat here who does not deny that the Declaration applies to 
a negro! Do any of you know of one? Well, I have tried before 
perhaps fifty audiences, some larger and some smaller than this, to 
find one such Democrat, and never j-et have I found one who said 
I did not place him right in that. I must assume that Democrats 
hold that ; and now not one of these Democrats can show that he 
said that five years ago ! I venture to defy the whole party to pro- 
duce one man that ever uttered the belief that the Declaration did 
not apply to negroes before the repeal of the Missouri Compromise ! 
Four or five years ago we all thought negroes were men, and that 
when *'aU men" were named, negroes were included. But the whole 
Democratic party has deliberately taken negroes from the class of 
men and put them in the class of brutes. Turn it as you will, it is 
simply the truth ! Don't be too hasty then in saying that the people 
cannot be brought to this new doctrine, but note that long stride. 
One more as long completes the journey from where negroes are 
estimated as men to where they are estimated as mere brutes — as 
rightful property! 

That saying, "In the struggle between the white man and the 
negro," etc., which, I know, came from the same source as this pol- 
icy — that saying marks another step. There is a falsehood wrapped 
up in that statement. " In the struggle between the white man and 
the negro," assumes that there is a struggle, in which either the 
white man must enslave the negro or the negro must enslave the 
white. There is no such struggle. It is merely an ingenious false- 



622 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

hood to degrade and brutalize the negro. Let each let the other 
alone, and there is no struggle about it. If it was like two wrecked 
seamen on a narrow plank, where each must push the other off or 
drown himself, I would push the negro off — or a white man either; 
but it is not : the plank is large enough for both. This good earth is 
plenty broad enough for white man and negro both, and there is no 
need of either pushing the other off. 

So that saying, '' In the struggle between the negi-o and the croco- 
dile," etc., is made up from the idea that down where the crocodile 
inhabits, a white man can't labor ; it must be nothing else but croco- 
dile or negro ; if the negro does not, the crocodile must possess the 
earth ; in that case he declares for the negro. The meaning of the 
whole is just this : As a white man is to a negro, so is a negro to a 
crocodile ; and as the negro may rightfully treat the crocodile, so 
may the white man rightfully treat the negro. This very dear 
phrase coined by its author, and so dear that he deliberately repeats 
it in many speeches, has a tendency to still further brutalize the 
negro, and to bring public opinion to the point of utter indifference 
whether meii so brutalized are enslaved or not. When that time 
shall come, if ever, I think that policy to which I refer may prevail. 
But I hope the good free men of this country will never allow it to 
come, and until then the policy can never be maintained. 

Now, consider the effect of this policy. We in the States are not 
to care whether freedom or slavery gets the better, but the people iu 
the Territories may care. They are to decide, and they may think 
what they please; it is a matter of dollars and cents! But are not 
the people of the Territories detailed from the States? If this feeling 
of indifference — this absence of moral sense about the question — 
prevails in the States, wiU it not be carried into the Territories? 
Will not every man say/'I don't care; it is nothing to me"? If any 
one comes that wants slavery, must they not say, " I don't care 
whether freedom or slavery be voted up or voted down"? It results 
at last in nationalizing the institution of slavery. Even if fairly car- 
ried out, that policy is just as certain to nationalize slavery as the 
doctrine of Jeff Davis himself. These are only two roads to the 
same goal, and " popular sovereignty" is just as sure, and almost as 
short, as the other. 

What we want, and all we want, is to have with us the men who 
think slavery wrong. But those who say they hate slavery, and are 
opposed to it, but yet act with the Democratic party — where are 
they ? Let us apply a few tests. You say that you think slavery a 
wrong, but you renounce aU attempts to restrain it. Is there any- 
thing else that you think wrong, that you are not willing to deal with 
as a wrong? Why are you so careful, so tender of this one wroug 
and no otvlier ? You will not let us do a single thing as if it was 
wrong; there is no place where you will allow it to be even called 
wrong. We must not call it wrong in the free States, because it is 
not there, and we must not call it wrong in the slave States, because 
it is there ; we must not call it wrong in politics, because that is 
brining morality into politics, and we must not call it wrong in the 
pulpit, because that is bringing politics into religion ; we must not 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 623 

bring it into the tract society, or other societies, because those are 
such unsuitable places, and there is no single place, according to 
you, where this wrong thing can properly be called wrong. 

Perhaps you will plead that if the people of slave States should of 
themselves set on foot an effort for emancipation, you would wish 
them success and bid them God-speed. Let us test that ! In 1858 
the emancipation party of Missouri, with Frank Blair at their head, 
tried to get up a movement for that purpose; and, having started a 
party, contested the State. Blair was beaten, apparently if not 
truly, and when the news came to Connecticut, you, who knew that 
Frank Bhiir was taking hold of this thing by the right end, and 
doing the only tiling that you say can properly be done to remove 
this wrong — did you bow your heads in sorrow because of that de- 
feat? Do you, any of you, know one single Democrat that showed 
sorrow over that result ? Not one ! On the contrary, every man 
threw up his hat, and hallooed at the top of his lungs, '* Hooray for 
Democracy ! " 

Now, gentleman, the Republicans desire to place this great ques- 
tion of slaverj^ on the very basis on which our fathers placed it, and 
no other. It is easy to demonstrate that "our fathers who framed 
this government under which we live " looked on slavery as wrong, 
and so framed it and everything about it as to square with the idea 
that it was wrong, so far as the necessities arising from its existence 
permitted. In forming the Constitution they found the slave-trade 
existing, capital invested in it, fields depending upon it for labor, 
and the whole system resting upon the importation of slave labor. 
They therefore did not prohibit the slave-trade at once, but they 
gave the power to prohibit it after twenty years. Why was this ? 
What other foreign trade did they treat in that way ? Would they 
have done this if they had not thought slavery wrong ? 

Another thing was done by some of the same men who framed 
the Constitution, and afterward adopted as their own act by the first 
Congress held under that Constitution, of which many of the framers 
were members — they prohibited the spread of slavery in the Terri- 
tories. Thus the same men, the framers of the Constitution, cut off 
the supply and prohibited the spread of slavery; and both acts show 
conclusively that they considered that the thing was wrong. 

If additional proof is wanting, it can be found in the phraseology 
of the Constitution. When men are framing a supreme law and 
chart of government to secure blessings and prosperity to untold 
generations yet to come, they use language as short and direet and 
plain as can be found to express their meaning. In all matters but 
this of slavery the framers of the Constitution used the ver}^ clearest, 
shortest, and most direct language. But the Constitution alludes 
to slaveiy three times without mentioning it once ! The language 
used becomes ambiguous, roundabout, and mystical. They speak 
of the "immigration of persons," and mean the importation of 
slaves, but do not say so. In establishing a l)asis of representation 
they say " all other persons," when they mean to say slaves. Why 
did they not use the shortest phrase? In providing for the return 
of fugitives they say "persons held to service or labor." If they had 



624 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

said " slaves/' it would have been plainer and less liable to miscon- 
struction. Why did n't they do it f We cannot doubt that it was 
done on purpose. Only one reason is possible, and that is supplied 
us by one of the framers of the Constitution — and it is not possible 
for man to conceive of any other. They expected and desired that 
the system would come to an end, and meant that when it did the 
Constitution should not show that there ever had been a slave in 
this good free country of ours. 

I will dwell on that no longer. I see the signs of the approach- 
ing triumph of the Republicans in the bearing of their political 
adversaries. A great deal of this war with us nowadays is mere 
bushwhacking. At the battle of Waterloo, when Napoleon's cav- 
alry had charged again and again upon the unbroken squares of 
British infantry, at last they were giving up the attempt, and going 
off in disorder, when some of the officers, in mere vexation and com- 
plete despair, fired their pistols at those solid squares. The Demo- 
crats are in that sort of extreme desperation ; it is nothing else. I 
will take up a few of these arguments. 

There is "the irrepressible conflict." How they rail at Seward 
for that saying ! They repeat it constantly ; and although the proof 
has been thrust under their noses again and again that almost 
every good man since the formation of our government has uttered 
that same sentiment, from General Washington, who " trusted that 
we should yet have a confederacy of free States," with Jefferson, 
Jay, Monroe, down to the latest days, yet they refuse to notice that 
at all, and persist in railing at Seward for saying it. Even Roger 
A. Pryor, editor of the Richmond '' Enquirer," uttered the same 
sentiment in almost the same language, and yet so little offense did 
it give the Democrats that he was sent for to Washington to edit 
the "States" — the Douglas organ there, while Douglas goes into 
hydrophobia and spasms of rage because Seward dared to repeat it. 
That is what I call bushwhacking — a sort of argument that they 
must know any child can see through. 

Another is John Brown ! You stir up insurrections ; you invade 
the South ! John Brown ! Harper's Ferry ! Why, John Brown 
was not a Republican ! You have never implicated a single Repub- 
lican in that Harper's Ferry enterprise. We tell you if any member 
of the Republican party is guilty in that matter, you know it or you 
do not know it. If you do know it, you are inexcusable not to des- 
ignate the man and prove the fact. If you do not know it, you are 
inexcusable to assert it, and especially to persist in the assertion 
after you have tried and failed to make the proof. You need not be 
told that persisting in a charge which one does not know to be true 
is simply malicious slander. Some of you admit that no Republican 
designedly aided or encouraged the Harper's Ferry affair ; but stUl 
insist that our doctrines and declarations necessarily lead to such 
results. We do not believe it. We know we hold to no doctrines 
and make no declarations which were not held to and made by our 
fathers who framed the government under which we live, and we 
cannot see how declarations that were patriotic when they made 
them are villainous when we make them. You never dealt fairly by 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 625 

UP in relation to that affair — and I will say frankly that I know of 
notnmg in yonr character that should lead us to suppose that you 
would. You had just been soundly thrashed in elections in several 
States, and others were soon to come. You rejoiced at the occasion, 
and only were troubled that there were not three times as many 
killed in the affair. You were in evident glee ; there was no sorrow 
for the killed nor for the peace of Vii-ginia disturbed ; you were re- 
joicing that by charging Republicans with this thing you might get 
an advantage of us in New York and the other States. You pulled 
that string as tightly as you could, but your very generous and 
worthy expectations were not quite fulfilled. Each Republican knew 
that the charge was a slander as to himself at least, and was not 
inclined by it to cast his vote in your favor. It was mere bush- 
whacking, because you had nothing else to do. You are still on that 
track, and I say, Go on ! If you think you can slander a woman into 
loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied. 
Another specimen of this bushwhacking — that "shoe strike." 
Now be it understood that I do not pretend to know all about the 
matter. I am merelj^ g'oiiig to speculate a little about some of its 
phases, and at the outset I am glad to see that a system of labor pre- 
vails in New England under which laborers can strike when they 
want to, where they are not obliged to work under all circumstances, 
and are not tied down and obliged to labor whether you pay them or 
not ! I like the system which lets a man quit when he wants to, and 
wish it might prevail everywhere. One of the reasons why I am op- 
posed to slavery is just here. What is the true condition of the 
laborer f I take it that it is best for all to leave each man free to 
acquire property as fast as he can. Some will get wealthy. I don't 
believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich ; it would do 
more harm than good. So while we do not propose any war upon 
capital, we do wish to allow the humblest man an equal chance to 
get rich with everybody else. When one starts poor, as most do in 
the race of life, free society is such that he knows he can better his 
condition ; he knows that there is no fixed condition of labor for his 
whole life. I am not ashamed to confess that twenty-five years ago 
I was a hired laborer, mauling rails, at work on a flatboat — just 
what might happen to any poor man's son. I want every man to 
have the chance — and I believe a black man is entitled to it — in 
which he can better his condition — when he may look forwai'd and 
hope to be a hired laborer this year and the next, work for himself 
afterward, and finally to hire men to work for him. That is the 
true system. Up here in New England you have a soil that scarcely 
sprouts black-eyed beans, and yet where will you find wealthy men 
so wealthy, and poverty so rarely in extremity f There is not an- 
other such place on earth ! I desire that if you get too thick here, 
and find it hard to better your condition on this soil, you may have 
a chance to strike and go somewhere else, where you may not be de- 
graded, nor have your family corrupted by forced rivalry with negro 
slaves. I want you to have a clean bed and no snakes in it ! Then 
you can better your condition, and so it may go on and on in one 
ceaseless round so long as man exists on the face of the earth. 
Vol. I.— 40. 



626 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Now to come back to this shoe strike. If, as the senator from Il- 
linois asserts, this is caused by withdrawal of Southern votes, con- 
sider briefly how you will meet the difficulty. You have done 
nothing, and have protested that you have done nothing, to injure 
the South; and yet to get back the shoe trade, you must leave 
off doing something that you are now doing. What is it? You 
must stop thinking slavery wrong. Let your institutions be wholly 
changed ; let your State constitutions be subverted ; glorify slavery j 
and so you will get back the shoe trade — for what? You have 
brought owned labor with it to compete with your own labor, to 
underwork you, and degrade you. Are you ready to get back the 
trade on these terms? 

But the statement is not correct. You have not lost that trade ; 
orders were never better than now. Senator Mason, a Democrat, 
comes into the Senate in homespun, a proof that the dissolution 
of the Union has actually begun. But orders are the same. Your 
factories have not struck work, neither those where they make 
anything for coats, nor for pants, nor for shirts, nor for ladies' 
dresses. Mr. Mason has not reached the manufacturers who ought 
to have made him a coat and pants. To make his proof good for 
anything, he should have come into the Senate barefoot. 

Another bushwhacking contrivance — simply that, nothing else! 
I find a good many people who are very much concerned about the 
loss of Southern trade. Now, either these people are sincere, or they 
are not. I will speculate a little about that. If they are sincere, 
and are moved by any real danger of the loss of the Southern trade, 
they will simply get their names on the white list, and then instead 
of persuading Republicans to do likewise, they will be glad to keep 
you away. Don't you see they thus shut off competition ? They 
would not be whispering around to Republicans to come in and share 
the profits with them. But if they are not sincere, and are merely 
trying to fool Republicans out of their votes, they will grow very 
anxious about your pecuniary prospects ; they are afraid you are 
going to get broken up and ruined; they did not care about Demo- 
cratic votes — oh, no, no, no! You must judge which class those 
belong to whom you meet. I leave it to you to determine from 
the facts. 

Let us notice some more of the stale charges against Republicans. 
You say we are sectional. We deny it. That makes an issue ; and 
the burden of proof is upon you. You produce your proof; and what 
is it? Why, that our party has no existence in your section — gets 
no votes in your section. The fact is substantially true ; but does it 
prove the issue? If it does, then in case we should, without change 
of principle, begin to get votes in your section, we should thereby 
cease to be sectional. You cannot escape this conclusion ; and yet, 
are you willing to abide by it? If you are, you will probablj' soon 
find that we have ceased to be sectional, for we shall get votes in 
your section this very year. The fact that we get no votes in your 
section is a fact of your making, and not of ours. And if there be 
fault in that fact, that fault is primarily yours, and remains so until 
you show that we repel you by some wrong principle or practice. If 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 627 

we do repel you by any wrong principle or practice, the fault is ours; 
but this brings you to where you ought to have started — to a discus- 
sion of the right or wrong of oiu- principle. If our principle, put in 
practice, would wrong your section for the benefit of ours, or for any 
other object, then our principle and we with it, are sectional, and are 
justly opposed and denounced as such. Meet us, then, on the ques- 
tion of whether our principle, put in practice, would wrong your sec- 
tion; and so meet it as if it were possible that something may be said 
on our side. Do you accept the challenge? No? Then you really 
believe that the principle which our fathers who framed the govern- 
ment under which we live thought so clearly right as to adopt it, and 
indorse it again and again, upon their official oaths, is, in fact, so 
clearly wrong as to demand your condemnation without a moment's 
consideration. 

Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning against sec- 
tional parties given by Washington in his Farewell Address. Less than 
eight years before Washington gave that warning, he had, as Pres- 
ident of the United States, approved and signed an act of Congress 
enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory, 
which act embodied the policy of government upon that subject up 
to and at the very moment he penned that warning ; and about one 
year after he penned it, he wrote Lafayette that he considered that 
prohibition a wise measure, expressing in the same connection his 
hope that we should some time have a confederacy of free States. 

Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionalism has since arisen 
upon this same subject, is that warning a weapon in your hands 
against us, or in our hands against you ? Could Washington him- 
self speak, would he cast the blame of that sectionalism upon us 
who sustain his policy, or upon you who repudiate it ? We respect 
that warning of Washington, and we commend it to you, together 
with his example pointing to the right application of it. 

But you say you are conservative — eminently conservative — 
while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of that sort. 
What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried 
against the new and untried ? We stick to, contend for, the identi- 
cal old policy on the point in controversy which was adopted by our 
fathers who framed the government under which we live ; while you 
with one accord reject, and scout, and spit upon that old policy, and 
insist upon substituting something new. True, you disagree among 
yourselves as to what that substitute shall be ; you have consider- 
able variety of new propositions and plans, but you are unanimous 
in rejecting and denouncing the old policy of the fathers. Some of 
you are for reviving the foreign slave-trade ; some for a congres- 
sional slave code for the Territories ; some for Congress forbidding 
the Territories to prohibit slavery within their limits ; some for 
maintaining slavery in the Territories through the judiciary ; some 
for the ''great principle" that if one man would enslave another, 
no third man should object, fantastically called ''popular sover- 
eignty "; but never a man among you in favor of Federal prohibition 
of slavery in Federal Territories according to the practice of our 
lathers who framed the government under which we live. Not one 



628 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

of all your various plaus cau show a precedent or an advocate in the 
century within which our goverument originated. And yet you draw 
yourselves up and say, " We are einiuently conservative." 

It is exceedingly desirable that all parts of this great Confederacy 
shall be at peace and in harmony one with another. Let us Repub- 
licans do our part to have it so. Even though much provoked, let 
us do nothing through passion and ill temper. Even though the 
Southern people will not so much as listen to us, let us calmly con- 
sider their demands, and yield to them if, in our deliberate view of 
our duty, we possibly can. Judging by all they say and do, and by 
the subject and nature of their controversy with us, let us determine, 
if we can, what will satisfy them. 

Will they be satisfied if the Territories be unconditionally surren- 
dered to them ? We know they will not. In all their present com- 
plaints against us the Territories are scarcely mentioned. Invasions 
and insurrections are the rage now. WiU it satisfy them if in the 
future we have nothing to do with invasions and insurrections ? We 
know it will not. We so know because we know we never have had 
anything to do with invasions and insurrections ; and yet this total 
abstaining does not exempt us from the charge and the denunciation. 

The question recurs. What will satisfy them? Simply this: we 
must not only let them alone, but we must somehow convince them 
that we do let them alone. This we know by experience is no 
easy task. We have been so trying to convince them from the very 
beginning of our organization, but with no success. In all our plat- 
forms and speeches we have constantly protested our purpose to 
let them alone ; but this has had no tendency to convince them. 
Alike unavailing to convince them is the fact that they have never 
detected a man of us in any attempt to disturb them. 

These natural and apparently adequate means all failing, what 
will convince them ? This, and this only : cease to call slaverj^ wrong, 
and join them in calling it right. And this must be done thoroughly 
— done in acts as well as in words. Silence will not be tolerated — 
we must place ourselves avowedly with them. Douglas's new sedi- 
tion law must be enacted and enforced, suppressing all declarations 
that slavery is wrong, whether made in politics, in presses, in pul- 
pits, or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive slaves 
with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our free-State constitu- 
tions. The whole atmosphere must l)e disinfected of all taint of op- 
position to slavery before they will cease to believe that all their 
troubles proceed from us. So long as we call slavery wrong, when- 
ever a slave runs away they will overlook the obvious fact that he 
ran because he was oppressed, and declare that he was stolen oJBE. 
Whenever a master cuts his slaves with the lash, and they cry our 
under it, he will overlook the obvious fact that the negroes cry oui 
because they are hurt, and insist that they were put up to it by some 
rascally Abolitionist. 

I am quite aware that they do not state their case precisely in this 
way. Most of them would probably say to us: "Let us alone; do 
nothing to us, and say what you please about slavery." But we do 
let them alone, — have never disturbed them, — so that, after all, it is 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 629 

what we say which dissatisfies them. They will contiuue to accuse 
us of doing, until we cease saying. 

I am also aware that they have not as yet in terms demanded the 
overthrow of our free-State constitutions. Yet those constitutions 
declare the wrong of slavery with more solemn emphasis than do 
all other sayings against it; and when all these other sayings shall 
have been silenced, the overthrow of these constitutions will he de- 
manded, and nothing be left to resist the demand. It is nothing to 
the contrary that they do not demand the whole of this just now. 
Demanding what they do, and for the reason they do, they can vol- 
untarily stop nowhere short of this consummation. Holding as they 
do that slavery is morally right and socially elevating, they cannot 
cease to demand a full national recognition of it, as a legal right and 
a social blessing. 

Nor can we justiiiably withhold this on any ground save our con- 
viction that slavery is wrong. If slavery is right, all words, acts, 
laws, and constitutions against it are themselves wrong, and should 
be silenced and swept away. If it is right, we cannot justly object 
to its nationality — its imiversality; if it is wrong, they cannot 
justly insist upon its extension — its enlargement. All they ask we 
could readily grant, if we thought slavery right; all we ask they 
could as readily grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking 
it right, and our thinking it wrong, is the precise fact upon which 
depends the whole controversy. Thinking it right, as they do, they 
are not to blame for desiring its full recognition as being right; but 
thinking it wrong, as we do, can we yield to them? Can we cast 
our votes with theii* view, and against our own ? In view of our 
moral, social, and political responsibilities, can we do this? 

Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone 
where it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from 
its actual presence in the nation ; but can we, while our votes will 
prevent it, allow it to spread into the national Territories and to over- 
run us here in these free States ? 

If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty fear- 
lessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those sophisti- 
cal contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and be- 
labored — contrivances such as groping for some middle gi'ound 
between the right and the wrong; vain as the search for a man who 
should be neither a living man nor a dead man; such as a policy of 
" don't care" on a question about which all true men do care ; such 
as Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, 
reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the right- 
eous to repentance; such as invocations to Washington, imploring 
men to unsay what Washington did. 

Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations 
against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the 
government, nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that 
right makes might ; and in that faith let us to the end dare to do 
our duty as we understand it. • 



630 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



March 9, 1860. — Abstract of Speech at Norwich, Connecticut. 

Whether we will or not, the question of slavery is the question, the 
all-absorbing: topic, of the day. It is true that all of us — and by that 
I mean, not the Republican party alone, but the whole American peo- 
ple, here and elsewhere — all of us wish the question settled — wish it 
out of the way. 

It stands in the way and prevents the adjustment and the giving 
of necessary attention to other questions of national housekeeping. 
The people of the whole nation agree that this question ought to be 
settled, and yet it is not settled. And the reason is that they are not 
yet agreed how it shall be settled. 

Again and again it has been fondly hoped that it was settled, but 
every time it breaks out afresh and more violently than ever. It was 
settled, our fathers hoped, by the Missouri Compromise, but it did not 
stay settled. Then the compromise of 1850 was declared to be a full 
and final settlement of the question. The two great parties, each in 
national convention, adopted resolutions declaring that the settlement 
made by the compromises of 1850 was a finality — that it would last 
forever. Yet how long before it was unsettled again? It broke out 
again in 1854, and blazed higher and raged more furiously than ever 
before, and the agitation has not rested since. 

These repeated settlements must have some fault about them. 
There must be some inadequacy in their very nature to the purpose 
for which they were designed. We can only speculate as to where 
that fault — that inadequacy is, but we may perhaps profit by past 
experience. 

I think that one of the causes of these repeated failures is that our 
best and greatest men have greatly underestimated the size of this 
question. They have constantly brought forward small cures for 
great sores — plasters too small to cover the wound. This is one reason 
that all settlements have proved so temporary, so evanescent. 

Look at the magnitude of this subject. About one sixth of the 
whole population of the United States are slaves. The owners of 
the slaves consider them property. The effect upon the minds of the 
owners is that of property, and nothing else — it induces them to 
insist upon all that will favorably affect its value as property, to de- 
mand laws and institutions and a public policy that shall increase 
and secure its value, and make it durable, lasting, and universal. The 
effect on the minds of the owners is to persuade them that there is no 
wrong in it. 

But here in Connecticut and at the North slavery does not exist, 
and we see it through no such medium. To us it appears natural to 
think that slaves are human beings ; men, not property ; that some 
of the things, at least, stated about men in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence apply to them as well as to us. We think slavery a great 
moral wrong ; and while we do not claim the right to touch it where 
it exists, we wish to treat it as a wrong in the Territories where 
our votes will reach it. Now these two ideas, the property idea that 
slavery is right, and the idea that it is wrong, come into collision, and 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 631 

do actually produce that irrepressible conflict which Mr. Seward has 
beeu so roundly abused for mentioning. The two ideas conflict, and 
must conflict. 

There are but two policies in regard to slavery that can be at all 
maintained. The first, based upon the property view that slavery 
is right, conforms to the idea throughout, and demands that we shall 
do everything for it that we ought to do if it were right. The other 
policy is one that squares with the idea that slavery is wrong, and it 
consists in doing everything that we ought to do if it is wrong. I 
don't mean that we ought to attack it where it exists. To me it 
seems that if we were to form a government anew, in view of the 
actual presence of slavery we should find it necessary to frame just 
such a government as our fathers did — giving to the slaveholder 
the entire control where the system was established, while vv'e pos- 
sessed the power to restrain it from going outside those limits. 

Now I have spoken of a policy based upon the idea that slavery is 
wrong, and a policy based upon the idea that it is right. But an 
effort has been made for a policy that shall treat it as neither right 
nor wrong. Its central idea is indifference. It holds that it makes 
no more difference to me whether the Territories become free or 
slave States than whether my neighbor stocks his farm with horned 
cattle or puts it into tobacco. AU recognize this policy, the plausible, 
sugar-coated name of which is " popular sovereignty." 

Mr. Lincoln showed up the fallacy of this policy at length, and 
then made a manly vindication of the principles of the Republican 
party, urging the necessity of the union of all elements to free our 
country from its present rule, and closed with an eloquent exhorta- 
tion for each and every one to do his duty without regard to the 
sneers and slanders of our political opponents. 



March 16, 1860. — Letter to 



As to your kind wishes for myself, allow me to say I cannot enter 
the ring on the money basis — first, because in the main it is wrong ; 
and secondly, I have not and cannot get the money. 

I say, in the main, the use of money is wrong ; but for certain ob- 
jects in a political contest, the use of some is both right and indis- 
pensable. With me, as with yourself, the long struggle has been one 
of great pecuniary loss. 

I now distinctly say this — if you shall be appointed a delegate to 
Chicago, I will furnish one hundred dollars to bear the expenses of 
the trip. Your friend, as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 

March 17, 1860. — Letter to J. W. Somers. 

Springfield, March 17, 1860. 
James W. Somers, Esq. 

My dear Sir: Reaching home three daj's ago, I found your letter 
of February 26th. 



632 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Considering yonr difficnlty of hearing, I think you had better 
settle in Chicago, if, as you say, a good man already in fair practice 
there will take you into partnership. If you had not that difficulty, 
I still should think it an even balance whether you would not better 
remain in Chicago, with such a chance for a copartnership. 

If I went West, I think I would go to Kansas, — to Leavenworth 
or Atchison. Both of them are, and will continue to be, fine growing 
places. 

I believe I have said all I can, and I have said it with the deepest 
interest for your welfare. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 



March 17, 1860. — Letter to E. Stafford. 

Springfield, Illinois, March 17, 1860. 
E. Stafford, Esq. 

Dear Sir : Reaching home on the 14th instant, I found yours of the 
1st. Thanking you very sincerely for your kind purposes toward me, 
I am compelled to say the mone}- part of the aiTangement j'ou pro- 
pose is, with me, an impossibility. I could not raise ten thousand 
dollars if it would save me from the fate of John Brown. Nor have 
my friends, so far as I know, yet reached the point of staking any 
money on my chances of success. I wish I could tell you better 
things, but it is even so. Yours very truly, 

A. Lincoln. 



March 24, 1860. — Letter to Samuel Galloway. 

Chicago, March 24, 1860. 
Hon. Samuel Galloway. 

Mij dear Sir : I am here attending a trial in court. Before leaving 
home I received your kind letter of the loth. Of course I am gi'ati- 
fied to know I have friends in Ohio who are disposed to give me the 
highest evidence of their friendship and confidence. Mr. Parrott, of 
the legislature, had written me to the same effect. If I have any 
chance, it consists mainly in the fact that the whole opposition would 
vote for me, if nominated. (I don't mean to include the pro-slavery 
opposition of the South, of course.) My name is new in the field, 
and I suppose I am not the first choice of a very great many. Our 
policy, then, is to give no offense to others — leave them in a mood 
to co'me to us if they shall be compelled to give up their first love. 
This, too, is dealing justly with all, and leaving us in a mood to sup- 
port heartily whoever shall be nominated. I believe I have once 
before told you that I especially wish to do no ungenerous thing to- 
ward Governor Chase, because he gave us his sympathy in 1858 
when scarcely any other distinguished man did. Whatever you may 
do for me, consistently with these suggestions, will be appreciated 
and gi-atefuUy remembered. Please write me again. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 633 

April 6, 1860. — Letter to C. F. McNeil, 

Springfield, April 6, 1860. 
C. F. McNeil, Esq. 

Dear Sir: Reaching home yesterday, I found yours of the 23d 
March, inclosing a slip from '' The Middleport Press." It is not 
true that I ever charged anything for a political speech in my lifej 
but this much is true : Last October I was requested by letter to 
deliver some sort of speech in Mr. Beecher's church, in Brookhm — 
two hundred dollars being offered in the first letter. I wrote that 
I coukl do it in February, pro\ided they would take a political 
speech if I could find time to get up no other. They agreed; and 
subsequently I informed them the speech would have to be a polit- 
ical one. When I reached New York, I for the first time learned 
that the place was changed to ''Cooper Institute." I made the 
speech, and left for New Hampshire, where I have a son at school, 
neither asking for pay, nor having any offered me. Three days 
after a check for two hundred doUars was sent to me at New Hamp- 
shire; and I took it, and did not know it was wrong. My under- 
standing now is — though I knew nothing of it at tlie time — that 
they did charge for admittance to the Cooper Institute, and that they 
took in more than twice two hundred dollars. 

I have made this explanation to you as a friend ; but I wish no 
explanation made to our enemies. What they want is a squabble 
and a fuss, and that they can have if we explain; and they cannot 
have it if we don't. 

When I returned through New York from New England, I was 
told by the gentlemen who sent me the check that a drunken vaga- 
bond in the club, having learned something about the two hundred 
dollars, made the exhibition out of which "The Herald" manufac- 
tured the article quoted by " The Press" of your town. 

My judgment is, and therefore my request is, that you give no 
denial and no explanation. 

Thanking you for your kind interest in the matter, I remain, 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 

April 14, 1860. — Letter to . 

Springfield, Illinois, April 14, 1860. 
My dear Sir: Reaching home last night, I found your letter of the 
7th. You know I was in New England. Some of the acquaintances 
I made while there write to me since the election that the close vote 
in Connecticut and the quasi defeat in Rhode Island are a drawback 
upon the prospects of Governor Seward; and Trumbull writes 
Dubois to the same effect. Do not mention this as coming from me. 
Both those States are safe enough for us in the falL I see by the 
despatches that since you wrote Kansas has appointed delegates and 
instructed them for Seward. Do not stir them up to anger, but 
come along to the convention, and I will do as I said about expenses. 

Yours as ever, A. Lincoln. 



634 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

May 12, 1860. — Letter to Edward Wallace. 

Springfield, Illinois, May 12, 1860. 
Dr. Edward Wallace. 

My dear Sir: Your brother, Dr. W. S. Wallace, shows me a letter 
of yours in which you request him to inquire if you may use a letter 
of mine to you in which something is said upon the tariff question. 
I do not precisely remember what I did say in that letter, but I 
presume I said nothing substantially different from what I shall 
say now. 

In the days of Henry Clay, I was a Henry-Clay-tariff man, and 
my views have undergone no material change upon that subject. I 
now think the tariff question ought not to be agitated in the Chicago 
convention, but that all should be satisfied on that point with a 
presidential candidate whose antecedents give assurance that he 
would neither seek to force a tariff law by executive influence, nor 
yet to arrest a reasonable one by a veto or otherwise. Just such a 
candidate I desire shall be put in nomination. I really have no ob- 
jection to these views being publicly known, but I do wish to thrust 
no letter before the public now upon any subject. Save me from 
the appearance of obtrusion, and I do not care who sees this or my 
former letter. Yours very tnily, 

A. Lincoln. 

May 19, 1860. — Reply to the Committee sent by the Chicago 
Convention to inform Mr. Lincoln of his Nomination for 
President. 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee : I tender to you, 
and through you to the Republican National Convention, and all the 
people represented in it, my profoundest thanks for the high honor 
done me, which you now formally aimounce. Deeply and even pain- 
fully sensible of the great responsibility which is inseparable from 
this high honor — a responsibility which I could almost Avish had 
fallen upon some one of the far more eminent men and experienced 
statesmen whose distinguished names were before the convention — 
I shall, by your leave, consider more fully the resolutions of the con- 
vention, denominated the platform, and without any unnecessary or 
unreasonable delay respond to you, Mr. Chairman, in writing, not 
doubting that the platform will be found satisfactory, and the nom- 
ination gratefully accepted. 

And now I will not longer defer the pleasure of taking you, and 
each of you, by the hand. 

May 21, 1860. — Letter to J. R. Giddings. 

Springfield, Illinois, May 21, 1860. 
Hon. J. R. Giddings. 

My good Friend : Your very kind and acceptable letter of the 19th 
was duly handed me by Mr. Tuck. It is indeed most gi-atef ul to my 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 635 

feelings that the responsible position assigned me comes without con- 
ditions, save only such honorable ones as are fairly implied. I am not 
wanting in the purpose, though I may fail in the strength, to main- 
tain my freedom from bad influences. Your letter comes to ray aid in 
this point most opportunely. May the Almighty grant that the cause 
of truth, justice, and humanity shall in no wise suffer at my hands. 
Mrs. Lincoln joins me in sincere wishes for your health, happi- 
ness, and long life. 

A. Lincoln. 

May 23, 1860. — Letter to George Ashmun and Others. 

Springfield, Illinois, May 23, 1860. 
Hon. George Ashmun, 

President of the Republican National Convention. 

Sir: I accept the nomination tendered me by the convention over 
which you presided, and of which I am formally apprised in the 
letter of yourself and others, acting as a committee of the conven- 
tion for that purpose. 

The declaration of principles and sentiments which accompanies 
your letter meets my api)roval; and it shall be my care not to vio- 
late or disregard it in any part. 

Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and with due re- 
gard to the views and feelings of all who were represented in the 
convention — to the rights of all the States and Territories and 
people of the nation ; to the inviolability of the Constitution ; and 
the perpetual union, harmony, and prosperity of all — I am most 
happy to cooperate for the practical success of the principles de- 
clared by the convention. 

Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen, A. Lincoln. 

Platform op the Republican National Convention held in 
Chicago, Illinois, May 16-18, 1860. 

Resolved, That we, the delegated representatives of the Republican electoi's 
of the United States, in convention assembled, in the discharge of the 
duty we owe to our constituents and our country, unite in the following 
declarations : 

1. That the history of the nation dmnng the last fom* years has fully es- 
tablished the propriety and necessity of the organization and perpetuation 
of the Republican party ; and that the causes which called it into existence 
are permanent in their nature, and now, more than ever before, demand its 
peaceful and constitutional triumph. 

2. That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declara- 
tion of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution is essen- 
tial to the preservation of our Republican institutions, and that the Federal 
Constitution, the rights of the States, and the union of the States, must and 
shall be preserved. 

3. That to the union of the States this nation owes its unprecedented 
increase in population, its surprising development of material resources, 
its rapid augmentation of wealth, its happiness at home, and its honor 
abroad; and we hold in abhorrence all schemes for disunion, come from 



636 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

whatever source they may. And we congratulate the country that no 
Republican member of Congress has uttered or countenanced the threats 
of disunion so often made by Democratic members without rebuke and 
with applause from their political associates; and we denounce those thi-eats 
of disunion, in case of a popular overthrow of their ascendancy, as deny- 
ing the vital pi'inciples of a free govei'nment, and as an avowal of contem- 
plated treason, which it is the imperative duty of an indignant people sternly 
to rebuke and forever silence. 

4. That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and 
especiaDy the right of each State to order and control its own domestic 
institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that 
balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political 
fabric depends ; and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of 
the soil of any State or TeiTitory, no matter under what pretext, as among 
the gravest of crimes. 

5. That the present Democratic administration has far exceeded our 
worst apprehensions in its measvu'eless subserviency to the exactions of a 
sectional interest, as especially evinced in its desperate exertions to force 
the infamous Lecompton constitution upon the protesting people of Kan- 
sas; in construing the personal relation between master and servant to 
involve an unqualified property in persons ; in its attempted enforcement 
everywhere, on land and sea, tkrough the intervention of Congi'ess and of 
the Federal courts, of the extreme pretensions of a purely local interest; 
and in its general and unvarying abuse of the power intrusted to it by a 
confiding people. 

6. That the people justly view with alarm the reckless extravagance 
which pervades every department of the Federal Government ; that a return 
to rigid economy and accountability is indispensable to arrest the syste- 
matic plunder of the public treasmy ])y favored partizans ; while the recent 
starthng developments of frauds and corruptions at the Federal metropolis 
show that an entire change of administration is imperatively demanded. 

7. That the new dogma that the Constitution, of its own force, carries 
slavery into any or all of the Territories of the United States, is a dangerous 
poHtical heresy, at variance with the exphcit provisions of that instrument 
itself, with contemporaneous exposition, and with legislative and judicial 
precedent; is revohitionary in its tendency, and subversive of the peace 
and hannony of the country. 

8. That the normal condition of all the territory of the United States is 
that of freedom ; that as our Republican fathers, when they had aboUshed 
slavery in all our national territory, ordained that "no person should be 
deprived of life, liberty, or property wdthout due process of law," it be- 
comes our duty, by legislation, whenever such legislation is necessary, to 
maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it; 
and we deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any 
individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any Teiritory of the 
United States. 

9. That we brand the recent reopening of the African slave-trade, un- 
der the cover of our national flag, aided by perversions of judicial power, 
as a crime against humanity and a bvu'ning shame to our country and age; 
and we call upon Congress to take prompt and efficient measures for the 
total and final suppression of that execrable traffic. 

10. That in the recent vetoes, by theu' Federal goveraors, of the acts of 
the legislatures of Kansas and Nebraska prohibiting slavery in those Terri- 
tories, we find a practical illustration of the boasted Democratic principle 
of non-intervention and popular sovereignty embodied in the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, and a demonstration of the deception and fraud involved 
therein. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 637 

11. That Kansas should, of right, be immediately admitted as a State 
under the constitution recently formed and adopted by her people, and ac- 
cepted by the House of Representatives, 

12. That while providing revenue for the support of the General Govern- 
ment by duties upon imports, sound policy requii-es such an adjustment of 
these imposts as to encourage the development of the industrial interests of 
the whole country; and we commend that pohcy of national exchanges 
which secures to the working-men liberal wages, to agriculture remunerat- 
ing prices, to mechanics and manufacturers an adequate reward for their 
skill, labor, and enterprise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and 
independence. 

13. That we protest against any sale or alienation to others of the pub- 
lic lands held by actual settlers, and against any vievf of the free-home- 
stead policy which regards the settlers as paupers or supi)hants for public 
bounty; and we demand the passage by Congress of the complete and sat- 
isfactory homestead measure which has already passed. the House. 

14. That the national Republican party is opposed to any change in our 
naturalization laws, or any State legislation by which the rights of citizen- 
ship hitherto accorded to immigrants from foreign lands shall be abridged 
or impaired; and in favor of giving a full and efficient protection to the 
rights of all classes of citizens, whether native or naturalized, both at home 
and abroad. 

15. That appropriations by Congress for river and harbor improvements 
of a national character, required for the accommodation and secm-ity of an 
existing commerce, are authorized by the Constitution and justitied by the 
obligation of government to protect the lives and property of its citizens. 

16. That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively demanded by the 
interests of the whole country ; that the Federal Government ought to ren- 
der immediate and efficient aid in its construction; and that, as preliminary 
thereto, a daily overland mail should be promptly established. 

17. Finally, having thus set forth our distinctive principles and views, 
we invite the cooperation of all citizens, however differing on other ques- 
tions, who substantially agree with us in their affirmance and support. 

May 26, 1860. — Letter to E. B. Washburne. 

Springfield, Illinois, May 26, 1860. 
Hon. E. B. Washburne. 

Ml/ dear Sir: I have several letters from you wi'itten since the 
uomination, but till now have found no moment to say a word by 
way of answer. Of course I am glad that the nomination is well re- 
ceived by our friends, and I sincerely thank you for so informing 
me. So far as I can learn, the nominations start well everj^vhere; 
and, if they get no back-set, it would seem as if they are going 
through. I hope you will write often ; and as you write more rap- 
idly than I do, don't make your letters so short as mine. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 

May 26, I860.— Letter to S. P. Chase. 

Springfield, Illinois, May 26, 1860. 
Hon. S. p. Chase. 

My dear Sir: It gave me great pleasure to receive yours mis- 
takenly dated May 17, Holding myself the humblest of all whose 



638 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

names were before the convention, I feel in especial need of the as- 
sistance of all; and I am glad — very glad — of the indication that 
you stand ready. It is a great consolation that so nearly all — all 
except Mr. Bates and Mr. Clay, I believe — of those distinguished and 
able men are already in high position to do service in the common 
cause. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 

[June ?] I860.— Form of Reply prepared by Mr. Lincoln, with 
wfflCH HIS Private Secretary was instructed to answer a 
Numerous Class of Letters in the Campaign of 1860. 

{Doctrine.) 

Springfield, Illinois, , 1860. 

Bear Sir: Your letter to Mr. Lincoln of , and by which 

you seek to obtain his opinions on certain political points, has 
been received by him. He has received others of a similar character, 
but he also has a greater number of the exactly opposite character. 
The latter class beseech him to write nothing whatever upon any 
point of political doctrine. They say his positions were well known 
when he was nominated, and that he must not now embarrass the 
canvass by undertaking to shift or modify them. He regrets that 
he cannot oblige aU, but you perceive it is impossible for him to do so. 

Yours, etc., Jno. G. Nicolay. 



June [1 ?], 1860. — Short Autobiography written at the Request 
OF A Friend to use in preparing a Popular Campaign Biog- 
raphy IN the Election of 1860. 

Abraham Lincoln was born Febniary 12, 1809, then in Hardin, 
now in the more recently formed county of La Rue, Kentucky. His 
father, Thomas, and grandfather, Abraham, were born in Rocking- 
ham County, Virginia, whither their ancestors had come from Berks 
County, Pennsylvania. His lineage has been traced no farther back 
than this. The family were originally Quakers, though in later times 
they have fallen av/ay from the peculiar habits of that people. The 
grandfather, Abraham, had four brothers — Isaac, Jacob, John, and 
Thomas. So far as known, the descendants of Jacob and John are 
still in Virginia. Isaac went to a place near where Virginia, North 
Carolina, and Tennessee join ; and his descendants are in that I'e- 
gion. Thomas came to Kentucky, and after many years died there, 
whence his descendants went to Missouri. Abraham, grandfather of 
the subject of this sketch, came to Kentucky, and was killed by In- 
dians about the year 1784. He left a widow, three sons, and two 
daughters. The eldest son, Mordecai, remained in Kentucky till late 
in life, when he removed to Hancock County, Illinois, where soon 
after he died, and where several of his descendants still remain. The 
second son, Josiah, removed at an early day to a place on Blue River, 
now within Hancock County, Indiana, but no recent information of 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 639 

him or his family has been obtained. The eldest sister, Mary, mar- 
ried Ralph Crume, and some of her descendants are now known to 
be in Breckenridge County, Kentucky. The second sister, Nancy, 
married William Brumfield, and her family are not known to have left 
Kentucky, but there is no recent information from them. Thomas, 
the youngest son, and father of the present subject, by the early 
deatb of his father, and very narrow circumstances of his mother, 
even in childhood was a wandering laboring-boy, and grew up liter- 
ally without education. He never did more in the way of writing 
than to bunglingly write his own name. Before he was grown he 
passed one year as a hired hand with his uncle Isaac on Watauga, 
a branch of the Holston River. Getting back into Kentucky, and 
having reached his twenty-eighth year, he married Nancy Hanks — 
mother of the present subject — in the year 1806. She also was born 
in Virginia; and relatives of hers of the name of Hanks, and of 
other names, now reside in Coles, in Macon, and in Adams counties, 
Illinois, and also in Iowa. The present subject has no brother or 
sister of the whole or half blood. He had a sister, older than him- 
self, who was grown and married, but died many years ago, leaving 
no child; also a brother, younger than himself, who died in infancy. 
Before leaving Kentucky, he and his sister were sent, for short 
periods, to A B C schools, the first kept by Zachariah Riney, and 
the second by Caleb Hazel. 

At this time his father resided on Knob Creek, on the road from 
Bardstown, Kentucky, to Nashville, Tennessee, at a point three or 
three and a half miles south or southwest of Atherton's Ferry, on the 
Rolling Fork. From this place he removed to what is now Spencer 
County, Indiana, in the autumn of 1816, Abraham then being in 
his eighth year. This removal was partly on account of slavery, 
but chiefly on account of the difficulty in land titles in Kentucky. iJe 
settled in an unbroken forest, and the clearing away of surplus wood 
was the great task ahead. Abraham, though very young, was large 
of his age, and had an ax put into his hands at once; and from that 
till within his twenty-third year he was almost constantly handUng 
that most useful instrument — less, of course, in plowing and har- 
vesting seasons. At this place Abraham took an early start as a 
hunter, which was never much improved afterward. A few days 
before the completion of his eightli year, in the absence of his fathei-, 
a flock of wild turkeys approached the new log cabin, and Abraham 
with a rifle-gun, standing inside, shot through a crack and killed one 
of them. He has never since pulled a trigger on any larger game. 
In the autumn of 1818 his mother died; and a year afterward his 
father married Mrs. Sally Johnston, at Blizabethtown, Kentucky, 
a widow with three children of her first marriage. She proved a 
good and kind mother to Abraham, and is still living in Coles 
County, Illinois. There were no children of this second marriage. 
His father's residence continued at the same place in Indiana till 
1830. While here Abraham went to A B C schools by littles, kept 

successively by Andrew Crawford, Sweeney, and Azel W. Dor- 

sey. He does not remember any other. The family of Mr. Dor- 
sey now resides in Schuyler County, Illinois. Abraham now thinks 



640 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

that the aggregate of all his schooling did not amount to one year. 
He was never in a college or academy as a student, and never inside 
of a college or academy building till since he had a law license. 
What he has in the way of education he has picked up. After 
he was twenty-three and had separated from his father, he studied 
English grammar — imperfectly, of course, but so as to speak and 
write as well as he now does. He studied and nearly mastered the 
six books of Euchd since he was a member of Congress. He regrets 
his want of education, and does what he can to supply the want. 
In his tenth year he was kicked by a horse, and apparently killed 
for a time. When he was nineteen, still residing in Indiana, he 
made his first trip upon a flatboat to New Orleans. He was a hired 
hand merely, and he and a son of the owner, without other assis- 
tance, made the trip. The nature of part of the " cargo-load," as 
it was called, made it necessary for them to linger and trade along 
the sugar-coast ; and one night they were attacked by seven negroes 
with intent to kill and rt)b them. They were hurt some in the mel6e, 
but succeeded in driving the negroes from the boat, and then *' cut 
cable," "'weighed anchor," and left. 

March 1, 1830, Abraham having just completed his twenty-first 
year, his father and family, with the families of the two daughters 
and sons-in-law of his stepmother, left the old homestead in Indiana 
and came to Illinois. Their mode of conveyance was wagons drawn 
l)y ox-teams, and Abraham drove one of the teams. They reached 
the county of Macon, and stopped there some time within the same 
month of March. His father and family settled a new place on the 
north side of the Sangamon River, at the junction of the timber- 
land and prairie, about ten miles westerly from Decatur. Here they 
l)uilt a log cabin, into which they removed, and made sufficient of rails 
to fence ten acres of ground, fenced and broke the ground, and 
raised a crop of sown corn upon it the same year. These are, or are 
supposed to be, the rails about which so much is being said just now, 
though these are far from being the first or only rails ever made by 
Abraham. 

The sons-in-law were temporarily settled in other places in the 
county. In the autumn all hands were greatly afflicted with ague 
and fever, to which they had not been used, and by which they were 
greatly discouraged, so much so that they determined on leaving the 
county. They remained, however, through the succeeding Avinter, 
which was the winter of the very celebrated " deep snow" of Illinois. 
During that winter Abraham, together with his stepmother's son, 
John b. Johnston, and John Hanks, yet residing in Macon County, 
hired themselves to Denton Offutt to take a flatboat from Beardstown, 
Illinois, to New Orleans ; and for that purpose were to join him — 
Offutt — at Springfield, Illinois, so soon as the snow should go off. 
When it did go off, which was about the first of March, 1831, the 
county was so flooded as to make traveling by land impracticable; 
to obviate which difficulty they purchased a large canoe, and came 
down the Sangamon River in it. This is the time and the manner 
of Abraham's first entrance into Sangamon County. They found 
Offutt at Springfield, but learned from him that he had failed in get- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 641 

ting a boat at Beardstown. This led to their hiring themselves to 
him for twelve doUars per month each, and getting the timber out 
of the trees and building a boat at Old Sangamon town on the Sanga- 
mon River, seven miles northwest of Springfield, which boat they took 
to New Orleans, substantially upon the old contract. 

During this boat-enterprise acquaintance with Offutt, who was pre- 
viously an entire stranger, he conceived a liking for Abraham, and 
believing he could turn him to account, he contracted with him to 
act as clerk for him, on his return from New Orleans, in charge of 
a store and mill at New Salem, then in Sangamon, now in Menard 
County. Hanks had not gone to New Orleans, but having a family, 
and being likely to be detained from home longer than at first ex- 
pected, had turned back from St. Louis. He is the same John Hanks 
who now engineers the "rail enterprise" at Decatur, and is a first 
cousin to Abraham's mother. Abraham's father, with his own family 
and others mentioned, had, in pursuance of their intention, removed 
from Macon to Coles County. John D. Johnston, the stepmother's son, 
went to them, and Abraham stopped indefinitely and for the first time, 
as it were, by himself at New Salem, before mentioned. This was in July, 
1831. Here he rapidly made acquaintances and friends. In less than 
a year Offutt's business was failing — had almost failed — when the 
Black Hawk war of 1832 broke out. Abraham joined a volunteer 
company, and, to his own surprise, was elected captain of it. He says 
he has not since had any success in life which gave him so much sat- 
isfaction. He went to the campaign, served near three months, met 
the ordinary hardships of such an expedition, but was in no battle. 
He now owns, in Iowa, the land upon which his own warrants for the 
service were located. Returning from the campaign, and encouraged 
by his great popularity among his immediate neighbors, he the same 
year ran for the legislature, and was beaten, — his own precinct, how- 
ever, casting its votes 277 for and 7 against him — and that, too, 
while he was an avowed Clay man, and the precinct the autumn 
afterward giving a majority of 115 to General Jackson over Mr. 
Clay. This was the only time Abraham was ever beaten on a direct 
vote of the people. He was now without means and out of business, 
but was anxious to remain with his friends who had treated him with 
so much generosity, especially as he had nothing elsewhere to go to. 
He studied what he should do — thought of learning the blacksmith 
trade — thought of trying to study law — rather thought he could not 
succeed at that without a better education. Before long, strangely 
enough, a man offered to sell, and did sell, to Abraham and another 
as poor as himself, an old stock of goods, upon credit. They opened 
as merchants ; and he says that was the store. Of course they did 
nothing but get deeper and deeper in debt. He was appointed post- 
master at New Salem — the office being too insignificant to make his 
politics an objection. The store winked out. The surveyor of San- 
gamon offered to depute to Abraham that portion of his work which 
was within his part of the county. He accepted, procured a compass 
and chain, studied Flint and Gibson a little, and went at it. This pro- 
cured bread, and kept soul and body together. The election of 1834 
came, and he was then elected to the legislature by the highest vote 
Vol. I.— 41. 



642 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

cast for any candidate. Major John T. Stuart, then in full practice 
of the law, was also elected. During the canvass, in a private con- 
versation he encouraged Abraham [to] study law. After the election 
he borrowed books of Stuart, took them home with him, and went 
at it in good earnest. He studied with nobody. He still mixed in 
the surveying to pay board and clothing bills. When the legislature 
met, the law-books were dropped, but were taken up again at the end 
of the session. He was reelected in 1836, 1838, and 1840. In the 
autumn of 1836 he obtained a law license, and on April 15, 1837, 
removed to Springfield, and commenced the practice — his old friend 
Stuart taking him into partnership. March 3, 1837, by a protest 
entered upon the '' Illinois House Journal" of that date, at pages 817 
and 818, Abraham, with Dan Stone, another representative of Sanga- 
mon, briefly defined his position on the slavery question; and so far 
as it goes, it was then the same that it is now. The protest is as 
follows : 

Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery having passed both 
branches of the General Assembly at its present session, the undersigned 
hereby protest against the passage of the same. 

They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice 
and bad pohcy, but that the promulgation of Abolition doctrines tends 
rather to increase than abate its evils. 

They believe that the Congress of the United States has no power under 
the Constitution to interfere with the institution of slavery in the different 
States. 

They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power, under 
the Constitution, to abohsh slavery in the District of Columbia, but that the 
power ought not to be exercised imless at the request of the people of the 
District. 

The difference between these opinions and those contained in the above 
resolutions is then- reason for entering this protest. 

Dan Stone, 
A. Lincoln, 
Representatives from the County of Sangamon. 

In 1838 and 1840, Mr. Lincoln's party voted for him as Speaker, 
but being in the minority he was not elected. After 1840 he declined 
a reelection to the legislature. He was on the Harrison electoral 
ticket in 1840, and on that of Clay in 1844, and spent much time and 
labor in both those canvasses. In November, 1842, he was married to 
Mary, daughter of Robert S. Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky. They 
have three living children, all sons, one born in 1843, one in 1850, 
and one in 1853. They lost one, who was born in 1846. 

In 1846 he was elected to the lower House of Congress, and served 
one term only, commencing in December, 1847, and ending with the 
inauguration of General Taylor, in March, 1849. AU the battles of 
the Mexican war had been fought before Mr. Lincoln took his seat 
in Congress, but the American army was stiU in Mexico, and the 
treaty of peace was not fully and formally ratified till the June 
afterward. Much has been said of his course in Congress in regard 
to this war. A careful examination of the '^Journal" and "Congres- 
sional Globe " shows that he voted for aU the supply measures that 



ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 643 

came up, and for all the measures in any way favorable to the ofl&eers, 
soldiers, and their families, who conducted the war through : with 
the exception that some of these measures passed without yeas and 
nays, leaving no record as to how particular men voted. The '' Jour- 
nal" and " Globe" also show him voting that the war was unneces- 
sarily and unconstitutionally begun by the President of the United 
States. This is the language of Mr. Ashmun's amendment, for which 
Mr. Lincoln and nearly or quite all other Whigs of the House of 
Representatives voted. 

Mr. Lincoln's reasons for the opinion expressed by this vote were 
briefly that the President had sent General Taylor into an inhabited 
part of the country belonging to Mexico, and not to the United 
States, and thereby had provoked the fii-st act of hostility, in fact 
the commencement of the war ; that the place, being the country 
bordering on the east bank of the Rio Grande, was inhabited by 
native Mexicans, born there under the Mexican government, and 
had never submitted to, nor been conquered by, Texas or the United 
States, nor transferred to either by treaty; that although Texas 
claimed the Rio Grande as her boundary, Mexico had never recog- 
nized it, and neither Texas nor the United States had ever enforced 
it; that there was a broad desert between that and the country 
over which Texas had actual control ; that the country where hos- 
tilities commenced, having once belonged to Mexico, must remain 
so until it was somehow legally transferred, which had never been 
done. 

Mr. Lincoln thought the act of sending an armed force among the 
Mexicans was unnecessary, inasmuch as Mexico was in no way 
molesting or menacing the United States or the people thereof ; and 
that it was unconstitutional, because the power of levying war is 
vested in Congress, and not in the President. He thought the 
principal motive for the act was to divert public attention from 
the surrender of "Fifty-four, forty, or fight" to Great Britain, on 
the Oregon boundary question. 

Mr. Lincoln was not a candidate for reelection. This was deter- 
mined upon and declared before he went to Washington, in accor- 
dance with an understanding among Whig friends, by which Colonel 
Hardin and Colonel Baker had each previously served a single term 
in this same district. 

In 1848, during his term in Congress, he advocated General Tay- 
lor's nomination for the presidency, in opposition to all others, and 
also took an active part for his election after his nominati(m, speak- 
ing a few times in Maryland, near Washington, several times in 
Massachusetts, and canvassing quite fully his own district in Illinois, 
which was followed by a majority in the district of over 1500 for 
General Taylor. 

Upon his return from Congress he went to the practice of the law 
with greater earnestness than ever before. In 1852 he was upon the 
Scott electoral ticket, and did something in the way of canvassing, 
but owing to the hopelessness of the cause in Illinois he did less than 
in previous presidential canvasses. 

In 1854 his profession had almost superseded the thought of 



644 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

politics in his mind, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
aroused him as he had never been before. 

In the autumn of that year he took the stump with no broader 
practical aim or object than to secure, if possible, the reelection of 
Hon. Richard Yates to Congress. His speeches at once attracted 
a more marked attention than they had ever before done. As the 
canvass proceeded he was drawn to different parts of the State out- 
side of Mr. Yates's district. He did not abandon the law, but gave 
his attention by turns to that and politics. The State agricultural 
fair was at Springfield that year, and Douglas was announced to 
speak there. 

In the canvass of 1856 Mr. Lincoln made over fifty speeches, no one 
of which, so far as he remembers, was put in print. One of them was 
made at Galena, but Mr. Lincoln has no recollection of any part of 
it being printed ; nor does he remember whether in that speech he 
said anything about a Supreme Court decision. He may have spoken 
upon that subject, and some of the newspapers may have reported 
him as saying what is now ascribed to him ; but he thinks he could 
not have expressed himself as represented. 



June 14, I860.— Autobiographical Memorandum gr'-en to the 

Artist Hicks. 

I was born February 12, 1809, in then Hardin County, Kentucky, 
at a point within the now county of La Rue, a mile, or a mile and a 
half, from where Hodgen's mill now is. My parents being dead, and 
my own memory not serving, I know no means of identifying the 
precise locality. It was on Nolin Creek. 

June 14, 1860. A. Lincoln. 

June 28, I860.— Letter to W. C. Bryant. 

Springfield, Illinois, June 28, 1860. 
Mr. Wm. C. Bryant. 

My dear Sir : Please accept my thanks for the honor done me by 
your letter of the 16th. I appreciate the danger against which you 
would guard me, nor am I wanting in the purpose to avoid it. I 
thank you for the additional strength your words give me to main- 
tain that purpose. Your friend and servant, 

A. Lincoln. 

July 4, 1860. — Letter to A. Gr. Henry. 

Springfield, Illinois, July 4, 1860. 

My dear Doctor: Your very agreeable letter of May 15th was 
received three days ago. We are just now receiving the first sprink- 
ling of your Oregon election returns — not enough, I think, to indi- 
cate the result. We should be too happy if both Logan and Baker 
should triumph. 

Long before this you have learned who was nominated at Chicago. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN 645 

We know not what a day may bring forth, but to-day it looks as if 
the Chicago ticket will be elected. I think the chances were more 
than equal that we could have beaten the Democracy united. Di- 
vided as it is, its chance appears indeed very slim. But great is De- 
mocracy in resources; and it may yet give its fortunes a turn. It is 
under great temptation to do something; but what can it do which 
was not thought of, and found impracticable, at Charleston and Bal- 
timore? The signs now are that Douglas and Breckinridge will each 
have a ticket in every State. They are driven to this to keep up their 
bombastic claims of nationality, and to avoid the charge of section- 
alism which they have so much lavished upon us. 

It is an amusing fact, after all Douglas has said about nationality 
and sectionalism, that I had more votes from the southern section at 
Chicago than he had at Baltimore ! In fact, there was more of the 
southern section represented at Chicago than in the Douglas rump 
concern at Baltimore ! 

Our boy, in his tenth year (the baby when you left), has just had 
a hard and tedious spell of scarlet fever, and he is not yet beyond all 
danger. I have a headache and a sore throat upon me now, inducing 
me to suspect that I have an inferior type of the same thing. 

Our eldest boy, Bob, has been away from us nearly a year at 
school, and will enter Harvard University this month. He promises 
very well, considering we never controlled him much. Write again 
when you receive this. Mary joins in sending our kindest regards 
to Mrs. H., yourself, and all the family. 

Your friend, as ever, A. Lincoln. 



July 18, 1860. — Letter to Hannibal Hamlin. 

Springfield, Illinois, July 18, 1860. 
Hon. Hannibal Hamlin. 

My dear Sir: It appears to me that you and I ought to be ac- 
quainted, and accordingly I write this as a sort of introduction of 
myself to you. You first entered the Senate during the single term 
I was a member of the House of Representatives, but I have no rec- 
ollection that we were introduced. I shall be pleased to receive a 
line from you. 

The prospect of Republican success now appears very flattering, 
so far as I can perceive. Do you see anything to the contrary ? 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 



July 20, I860.— Letter to C. M. Clay. 

Springfield, Illinois, July 20, 1860. 
Hon. Cassius M. Clay. 

My dear Sir : I see by the papers, and also learn from Mr. Nico- 
lay, who saw you at Terre Haute, that you are filling a list of speak- 
ing-appointments in Indiana. I sincerely thank you for this, and I 



646 ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

shall be still further obliged if you will, at the close of the tour, drop 
me a line giving your impressions of our prospects in that State. 

Still more wOl you oblige me if you will allow me to make a list 
of appointments in our State, commencing, say, at Marshall, in Clark 
County, and thence south and west along over the Wabash and 
Ohio River border. 

In passing let me say that at Rockport you will be in the county 
within which I was brought up from my eighth year, having left 
Kentucky at that point of my life. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 

July 21, I860.— Letter to A. Jonas. 

{Confidential.) 

Springfield, Illinois, July 21, 1860. 
Hon. a. Jonas. 

My dear Sir : Yours of the 20th is received. I suppose as good 
or even better men than I may have been in American or Know- 
nothing lodges ; but, in point of fact, I never was in one at Quincy 
or elsewhere. I was never in Quincy but one day and two nights 
while Know-nothing lodges were in existence, and you were with me 
that day and both those nights. I had never been there before in 
my life, and never afterward, till the joint debate with Douglas in 
1858. It was in 1854 when I spoke in some hall there, and after the 
speaking, you, with others, took me to an oyster-saloon, passed an 
hour there, and you walked with me to, and parted with me at, the 
Quincy House, quite late at night. I left by stage for Naples before 
daylight in the morning, having come in by the same route after 
dark the evening previous to the speaking, when I found you wait- 
ing at the Quincy House to meet me. A few days after I v/as there, 
Richardson, as I understood, started this same story about my having 
been in a Know-nothing lodge. When I heard of the charge, as I 
did soon after, I taxed my recollection for some incident which could 
have suggested it; and I remembered that on parting with you the 
last night, I went to the office of the hotel to take my stage-passage 
for the morning, was told that no stage-office for that line was ke;pt 
there, and that I must see the driver before retiring, to insure his 
calling for me in the morning ; and a servant was sent with me to 
find the driver, who, after taking me a square or two, stopped me, 
and stepped perhaps a dozen steps farther, and in my hearing called 
to some one, who answered him, apparently from the upper part of a 
building, and promised to call with the stage for me at the Quincy 
House, I returned, and went to bed, and before day the stage called 
and took me. This is all. 

That I never was in a Know-nothing lodge in Quincy, I should 
expect could be easily proved by respectable men who were always 
in the lodges and never saw me there. An affidavit of one or two 
such would put the matter at rest. 

And now a word of caution. Our adversaries think they can 
gain a point if they could force me to openly deny the charge, by 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 647 

which some degree of offense would be given to the Americans. 
For this reason it must not publicly appear that I am paying any 
attention to the charge. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln, 

August 10, 1860. — Letter to C. M. Clay. 

Springfield, Illinois, August 10, 1860. 
Hon, C, M. Clay. 

My dear Sir : Your very kind letter of the 6th was received yester- 
day. It so happened that our State Central Committee was in session 
here at the time ; and, thinking it proper to do so, I submitted the 
letter to them. They were delighted with the assurance of having 
your assistance. For what appear good reasons, they, however, 
propose a change in the program, starting you at the same place 
(Marshall in Clark County), and thence northward. This change, I 
suppose, will be agreeable to you, as it will give you larger audiences, 
and much easier travel — nearly all being by raih-oad. They will be 
governed by your time, and when they shall have fully designated 
the places, you will be duly notified. 

As to the inaugural, I have not yet commenced getting it up ; 
while it affords me great pleasure to be able to say the cliques have 
not yet commenced upon me. Yours very truly, 

A, Lincoln. 

August 14, 1860. — Letter to T. A, Cheney. 

Springfield, Illinois, August 14, 1860. 
T. a. Cheney, Esq. 

Dear Sir : Yours of the 10th is received, and for which I thank 
you, I would cheerfully answer your questions in regard to the 
fugitive-slave law were it not that I consider it would be both im- 
prudent and contrary to the reasonable expectation of my friends 
for me to write or speak anything upon doctrinal points now. Be- 
sides this, my published speeches contain nearly all I could willingly 
say. Justice and fairness to all, is the utmost I have said, or will say. 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 

August 14, 1860. — Remarks at Springfield, Illinois. 

My Felloiv-citizens : I appear among you upon this occasion with 
no intention of making a speech. 

It has been my purpose since I have been placed in my present 
position to make no speeches. This assemblage having been drawn 
together at the place of my residence, it appeared to be the wish of 
those constituting this vast assembly to see me ; and it is certainly 
my wish to see all of you. I appear upon the ground here at this 
time only for the purpose of affording myself the best opportunity 
of seeing you, and enabling you to see me. 

I confess with gratitude, be it understood, that I did not suppose 
my appearance among you would create the tumult which I now 



648 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

witness. I am profoundly grateful for this manifestation of your 
feelings. I am grateful, because it is a tribute such as can be paid 
to no man as a man : it is the evidence that four years from this 
time you will give a like manifestation to the next man who is the 
representative of the truth on the questions that now agitate the 
public ; and it is because you will then fight for this cause as you 
do now, or with even greater ardor than now, though I be dead and 
gone, that I most profoundly and sincerely thank you. 

Having said this much, allow me now to say that it is my wish that 
you will hear this public discussion by others of our friends who are 
present for the purpose of addressing you, and that you will kindly 
let me be silent. 



August 15, 1860. — Letter to John B. Fry. 

Springfield, Illinois, August 15, 1860. 

My dear Sir: Yours of the 9th, inclosing the letter of Hon. John 
Minor Botts, was duly received. The latter is herewith returned ac- 
cording to your request. It contains one of the many assurances I 
receive from the South, that in no probable event will there be any 
very formidable effort to break up the Union. The people of the 
South have too much of good sense and good temper to attempt the 
ruin of the government rather than see it administered as it was 
administered by the men who made it. At least so I hope and 
believe. I thank you both for your own letter and a sight of that of 
Mr. Botts. Yours very truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

John B. Fry, Esq. 

August 17, 1860. — Letter to Thurlow Weed. 

Springfield, Illinois, August 17, 1860. 

My dear Sir: Yours of the 13th was received this morning. Doug- 
las is managing the Bell element with great adroitness. He has his 
men in Kentucky to vote for the Bell candidate, producing a result 
which has badly alarmed and damaged Breckinridge, and at the 
same time has induced the Bell men to suppose that Bell will cer- 
tainly be President if they can keep a few of the Northern States 
away from us by throwing them to Douglas. But you, better than 
I, understand all this. 

I think there will be the most extraordinary effort ever made to 
carry New York for Douglas. You and all others who write me 
from your State think the effort cannot succeed, and I hope you are 
right. Still it will require close watching and gi-eat efforts on the 
other side. 

Herewith I send you a copy of a letter written at New York, 
which sufficiently explains itself, and which may or may not give 
you a valuable hint. You have seen that Bell tickets have been put 
on the track both here and in Indiana. In both cases the object has 
been, I think, the same as the Hunt movement in New York — to 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 649 

throw States to Douglas. In our State we know the thing is en- 
gineered by Douglas men, and we do not believe they can make a 
great deal out of it. Yours very truly, 

A. Lincoln. 



August 27, 1860. — Letter to C. H. Fisher. 
(Apparently Unfinished.) 

Springfield, Illinois, August 27, 1860. 
C. H. Fisher. 

Bear Sir: Your second note, inclosing the supposed speech of 
Mr. Dallas to Lord Brougham, is received. I have read the speech 
quite through, together with the real author's introductory and 
closing remarks. I have also looked through the long preface of 
the book to-day. Both seem to be well written, and contain many 
things with which I could agree, and some with which I could not. 
A specimen of the latter is the declaration, in the closing remarks 
upon the '^ speech," that the institution is a " necessity " imposed on 
us by the negro race. That the going many thousand miles, seizing 
a set of savages, bringing them here, and making slaves of them is 
a necessity imposed on us by them involves a species of logic to 
which my mind wUl scarcely assent. 



September 4, 1860. — Letter to Hannibal Hamlin. 

Springfield, Illinois, September 4, 1860. 
Hon. Hannibal Hajvilin. 

My dear Sir : I am annoyed some by a letter from a friend in 
Chicago, in which the following passage occurs : " Hamlin has 
written Colfax that two members of Congress will, he fears, be lost 
in Maine — the first and sixth districts; and that Washburne's ma- 
jority for governor will not exceed six thousand." 

I had heard something like this six weeks ago, but had been as- 
sured since that it was not so. Your secretary of state, — Mr. Smith, 
I think, — whom you introduced to me by letter, gave this assur- 
ance ; more recently, Mr. Fessenden, our candidate for Congress in 
one of those districts, wrote a relative here that his election was sure 
by at least five thousand, and that Washburue's majority would be 
from 14,000 to 17,000 ; and still later, Mr. Fogg, of New Hampshire, 
now at New York serving on a national committee, wrote me that 
we were having a desperate fight in Maine, which would end in a 
splendid victory for us. 

Such a result as you seem to have predicted in Maine, in your let- 
ter to Colfax, would, I fear, put us on the down-hill track, lose us 
the State elections in Pennsylvania and Indiana, and probably ruin 
us on the main turn in November. 

You must not allow it. Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 



650 ADDBESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



September 9, 1860. — Letter to E. B. Washburne. 

Springfield, Illinois, September 9, 1860. 
Hon. E. B. Washburne. 

My dear Sir : Yours of the 5tli was received last evening. I was 
right glad to see it. It contains the freshest " posting " which I now 
have. It relieved me some from a little anxiety I had about Maine. 
Jo Medill, on August 30th, wrote me that Colfax had a letter from 
Mr. Hamlin saying we were in great danger of losing two members of 
Congress in Maine, and that your brother would not have exceeding 
six thousand majority for governor. I addressed you at once, at 
Galena, asking for your latest information. As you are at Washing- 
ton, that letter you will receive some time after the Maine election. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 

September 21, 1860. — Letter to John Chrisman. 

Springfield, Illinois, September 21, 1860. 
John Chrisman, Esq. 

My dear Sir : Yours of the 13th was duly received. I have no 
doubt that you and I are related. My grandfather's Christian name 
was '^Abraham." He had four brothers — Isaac, Jacob, John, and 
Thomas. They were born in Pennsylvania, and my grandfather, 
and some, if not all, the others, in early life removed to Rockingham 
County, Virginia. There my father — named Thomas — was born. 
From there my grandfather removed to Kentucky, and was kUled by 
the Indians about the year 1784. His brother Thomas, who was my 
father's uncle, also removed to Kentucky — to Fayette County, I think 
— where, as I understand, he lived and died. I close by repeating I 
have no doubt you and I are related. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 

September 22, I860.— Letter to A. G. Henry. 

Springfield, Illinois, September 22, 1860. 

Bear Doctor : Yours of July 18th was received some time ago. 
When you wrote you had not learned the result of the Democratic 
conventions at Charleston and Baltimore. With the two tickets in 
the field I should think it possible for our friends to carry Oregon. 
But the general result, I think, does not depend upon Oregon. No 
one this side of the mountains pretends that any ticket can be elected 
by the people, unless it be ours. Hence great efforts to combine 
against us are being made, which, however, as yet have not had much 
success. Besides what we see in the newspapers, I have a good deal 
of private correspondence ; and without giving details, I will only 
say it all looks very favorable to our success. 

lyiake my best respects to Mrs. Henry and the rest of your family. 
Your friend, as ever, A. Lincoln. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 651 

September 22, I860.— Letter to G. Y. Tams. 

(Private and confidential.) 

Springfield, Illinois, September 22, 1860. 
G. Yoke Tams, Esq. 

My dear Sir: Your letter asking me ''Are you in favor of a tariff 
and protection to American industry? " is received. The convention 
wliich nominated me, by the twelfth plank of their platform, selected 
their position on this question ; and 1 have declared my approval of 
the platform, and accepted the nomination. Now, if I were to pub- 
licly shift the position by adding or subtracting anything, the con- 
vention would have the right, and probably would be inclined, to 
displace me as their candidate. And I feel confident that you, on re- 
flection, would not wish me to give private assurances to be seen by 
some and kept secret from others. I enjoin that this shall by no 
means be made public. Yours respectfully, 

A. Lincoln. 



September 25, 1860. — Letter to J. M. Brockiman. 

Springfield, Illinois, September 25, 1860. 
J. M. Brockman, Esq. 

Bear Sir: Yours of the 24th, asking " the best mode of obtaining 
a thorough knowledge of the law," is received. The mode is very 
simple, though laborious and tedious. It is only to get the books 
and read and study them carefully. Begin with Blackstone's " Com- 
mentaries," and after reading it carefully through, say twice, 
take up Chitty's *' Pleadings," Greenleaf 's " Evidence," and Story's 
" Equity," etc., in succession. Work, work, work, is the main thing. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 



October 1, 1860. — Letter to J. H. Reed. 

Springfield, Illinois, October 1, 1860. 
J. H. Reed, Esq. 

My dear Sir: Yours of September 21st was received some time ago, 
but I could not till now find time to answer it. I never was in Mc- 
Donough County till 1858. I never said anything derogatory of Mr. 
Jefferson in McDonough County or elsewhere. About three weeks 
ago, for the first time in my life did I ever see or hear the language 
attributed to me as having been used toward Mr. Jefferson; and 
then it was sent to me, as you now send, in order that I might say 
whether it came from me. I never used any such language at any 
time. You may rely on the truth of this, although it is my wish that 
you do not publish it. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 



652 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

October 19, I860.— Letter to Miss Grace Bedell. 
{Private.) 

Springfield, Illinois, October 19, 1860. 
Miss Grace Bedell. 

My dear little Miss : Your very agreeable letter of the ISth is re- 
ceived. I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughter. I have 
three sons — one seventeen, one nine, and one seven years of age. 
They, with their mother, constitute my whole family. As to the 
whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would 
call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin it now? 

Your very sincere well-wisher, A. Lincoln. 

October 23, I860.— Letter to W. S. Speer. 

{Confidential.) 

Springfield, Illinois, October 23, 1860. 
Willia^i S. Speer, Esq. 

My dear Sir: Yours of the 13th was duly received. I appreciate 
your motive when you suggest the propriety of my writing for the 
public something disclaiming all intention to interfere with slaves or 
slavery in the States; but in my judgment it would do no good. I 
have already done this many, many times; and it is in print, and 
open to all who will read. Those who will not read or heed what I 
have already publicly said would not read or heed a repetition of it. 
" If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be per- 
suaded though one rose from the dead." 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 

October 29, I860.— Letter to G. D. Prentice. 

{Private and confidential.) 

Springfield, Illinois, October 29, 1860. 
George D. Prentice, Esq. 

My dear Sir: Yours of the 26th is just received. Your suggestion 
that I in a certain event shall write a letter setting forth my conser- 
vative views and intentions is certainly a very worthy one. But 
would it do any good? If I were to labor a month I could not 
express my conservative views and intentions more clearly and 
strongly than they are expressed in our platform and in my many 
speeches already in print and before the public. And j^et even you, 
who do occasionally speak of me in terms of personal kindness, give 
no prominence to these oft-repeated expressions of conservative views 
and intentions, but busy yourself with appeals to all conservative men 
to vote for Douglas, — to vote any way which can possibly defeat me, — 
thus impressing your readers that you think I am the very worst man 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 653 

living. If what I have already said has failed to convince you, no 
repetition of it would convince you. The writing of your letter, now 
before me, gives assurance that you would publish such a letter from 
me as you suggest; but, till now, what reason had I to suppose the 
" Louisville Journal," even, would publish a repetition of that which 
is already at its command, and which it does not press upon the pub- 
lic attention ? 

And now, my friend, — for such I esteem you personally, — do not 
misunderstand me. I have not decided that I will not do substan- 
tially what you suggest. I will not forbear from doing so merely on 
punctilio and pluck. If I do finally abstain, it will be because of ap- 
prehension that it would do harm. For the good men of the South — 
and I regard the majority of them as such — I have no objection to 
repeat seventy and seven times. But I have bad men to deal with, 
both North and South j men who are eager for something new upon 
which to base new misrepresentations ; men who would like to 
frighten me, or at least to fix upon me the character of timidity and 
cowardice. They would seize upon almost any letter I could write as 
being an ''awful coming down." I intend keeping my eye upon 
these gentlemen, and to not unnecessarily put any weapons in their 
hands. Yours very truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

[The following indorsement appears on the back:] 

{Confidential.) 

The within letter was written on the day of its date, and on reflec- 
tion withheld till now. It expresses the views I still entertain. 

A. Lincoln. 

November 8, 1860. — Letter to Hannibal Hamlin. 

{Confidential.) 

Springfield, Illinois, November 8, 1860. 
Hon. Hannibal Hamlin. 

My dear Sir: I am anxious for a personal interview with you at as 
early a day as possible. Can you, without much inconvenience, meet 
me at Chicago? If you can, please name as early a day as you con- 
veniently can, and telegraph me, unless there be sufficient time be- 
fore the day named to communicate by mail. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 



November 9, 1860. — Letter to General Winfield Scott. 

Springfield, Illinois, November 9, 1860. 
Lieutenant-General Scott. 

Mr. Lincoln tenders his sincere thanks to General Scott for the 
copy of his " views," etc., which is received; and especially for this 



654 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABBAHAM LINCOLN 

renewed manifestation of his patriotic purpose as a citizen, connected, 
as it is, with his high official position and most distinguished char- 
acter as a military captain. A. L. 

November 10, I860.— Letter to Tribian Smith. 

{Private and confidential.) 

Springfield, Illinois, November 10, 1860. 
Hon. Truman Smith. 

My dear Sir: This is intended as a strictly private letter to you, 

and not as an answer to yours brought me by Mr. . It is with 

the most profound appreciation of your motive, and highest respect 
for your judgment, too, that I feel constrained, for the present at 
least, to make no declaration for the public. 

First. I could say nothing which I have not already said, and 
which is in print, and open for the inspection of all. To press a 
repetition of this upon those who have listened, is useless ; to press 
it upon those who have refused to listen, and still refuse, would be 
wanting in self-respect, and would have an appearance of sycophancy 
and timidity which would excite the contempt of good men and en- 
courage bad ones to clamor the more loudly. 

I am not insensible to any commercial or financial depression thfst 
may exist, but nothing is to be gained by fawning around the " re- 
spectable scoundrels " who got it up. Let them go to work and re- 
pair the mischief of their own making, and then perhaps they will 
be less greedy to do the like again. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 

November 13, I860.— Letter to Samuel Haycraft. 

{Private and confidential.) 

Springfield, Illinois, November 13, 1860. 
Hon. Samuel Haycraft. 

My dear Sir : Yours of the 9th is just received. I can only answer 
briefly. Rest fully assured that the good people of the South who 
will put themselves in the same temper and mood toward me which 
you do, will find no cause to complain of me. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 

November 16, I860.— Letter to N. P. Paschall. 

{Private and confidential.) 

Springfield, Illinois, November 16, 1860. 
N. P. Paschall, Esq. 

My dear Sir : Mr. Ridgely showed me a letter of yours in which 
you manifest some anxiety that I should make some public declara- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 655 

tion with a view to favorably affect the business of the country. I 
said to Mr. Ridgely I would write you to-day, which I now do. 

I could say nothing which I have not already said, and which is 
in print, and accessible to the public. Please pardon me for suggest- 
ing that if the papers like yours, which heretofore have persistently 
garbled and misrepresented what I have said, will now fully and 
fairly place it before their readers, there can be no further misunder- 
standing. I beg you to believe me sincere when I declare I do not 
say this in a spirit of complaint or resentment ; but that I urge it as 
the true cure for any real uneasiness in the country that my course 
may be other than conservative. The Republican newspapers now 
and for some time past are and have been republishing copious ex- 
tracts from my many published speeches, which would at once reach 
the whole pubUc if your class of papers would also publish them. I 
am not at liberty to shift my ground — that is out of the question. 
If I thought a repetition would do any good, I would make it. But 
in my judgment it would do positive harm. The secessionists per se, 
believing they had alarmed me, would clamor all the louder. 

Yours, etc., A. Lincoln. 



November 20, 1860. — Remarks at the Meeting at Springfield, 
Illinois, to celebrate Lincoln's Election. 

Friends and Fellow-citizens: Please excuse me on this occasion 
from making a speech. I thank you in common with all those who 
have thought fit by their votes to indorse the Republican cause. I 
rejoice with you in the success which has thus far attended that 
cause. Yet in all our rejoicings, let us neither express nor cherish 
any hard feelings toward any citizen who by his vote has differed 
with us. Let us at all times remember that all American citizens 
are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the 
bonds of fraternal feeling. Let me again beg you to accept my 
thanks, and to excuse me from further speaking at this time. 



November 27, 1860. — Letter to Hannibal Hamlin. 

Springfield, Illinois, November 27, 1860. 
Hon. Hannibal Hamlin. 

My dear Sir : On reaching home I find I have in charge for you 
the inclosed letter. 

I deem it proper to advise you that I also find letters here from 
very strong and unexpected quarters in Pennsylvania, urging the 
appointment of General Cameron to a place in the cabinet. 

Let this be a profound secret, even though I do think best to let 
you know it. Yours very sincerely, 

A. Lincoln. 



656 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

November 28, 1860. — Letter to Henry J. Raymond. 

{Private and confidential.) 

Springfield, Illinois, November 28, 1860. 
Hon. Henry J. Raymond. 

My dear Sir : Yours of the 14tli was received in due course. I 
have delayed so long to answer it, because my reasons for not com- 
ing before the public in any form just now had substantially ap- 
peared in your paper (the '* Times "), and hence I feared they were 
not deemed sufficient by you, else you would not have written me as 
you did. I now think we have a demonstration in favor of my view. 
On the 20th instant Senator Trumbull made a short speech, which 
I suppose you have both seen and approved. Has a single news- 
paper, heretofore against us, urged that speech upon its readers with 
a purpose to quiet public anxiety ? Not one, so far as I know. On 
the contrary, the " Boston Courier" and its class hold me responsible 
for that speech, and endeavor to inflame the North with the belief 
that it foreshadows an abandonment of Republican ground by the 
incoming administration ; while the Washington " Constitution " 
and its class hold the same speech up to the South as an open dec- 
laration of war against them. This is just as I expected, and just 
what would happen with any declaration I could make. These po- 
litical fiends are not half sick enough yet. Party malice, and not 
public good, possesses them entirely. '' They seek a sign, and no 
sign shall be given them." At least such is my present feeling and 
purpose. Yours very truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

November 30, I860.— Letter to A. H. Stephens. 

Springfield, Illinois, November 30, 1860. 
Hon. Alexander H. Stephens. 

My dear Sir : I have read in the newspapers your speech recently 
delivered (I think) before the Georgia legislature, or its assembled 
members. If you have revised it, as is probable, I shaU be much ob- 
liged if you will send me a copy. Youi's very truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

December 8, 1860. — Letter to Hannibal Hamlin. 

{Private.) 

Springfield, Illinois, December 8, 1860. 
Hon. Hannibal Hamlin. 

My dear Sir: Yours of the 4th was duly received. The inclosed 
to Governor Seward covers two notes to him, copies of which you 
find open for your inspection. Consult with Judge Trumbull ; and 
if you and he see no reason to the contrary, deliver the letter to Gov- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 657 

ernor Seward at once. If you see reason to the contrary, write me 
at once. 

I have had an intimation that Governor Banks would yet accept a 
place in the cabinet. Please ascertain and write me how this is. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 



December 8, I860.— Letters to W. H. Seward. 

Springfield, Illinois, December 8, 1860. 
My dear Sir: With your permission I shall at the proper time 
nominate you to the Senate for confirmation as Secretary of State 
for the United States. Please let me hear from you at your own 
earliest convenience. Your friend and obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 
Hon. William H. Seward, Washington, D. C. 



{Private and confidential.) 

Springfield, Illinois, December 8, 1860. 

My dear Sir: In addition to the accompanying and more formal 
note inviting you to take charge of the State Department, I deem it 
proper to address you this. Rumors have got into the newspapers 
to the effect that the department named above would be tendered 
you as a compliment, and with the expectation that you would de- 
cline it. I beg you to be assured that I have said nothing to justify 
these rumors. On the contrary, it has been my purpose, from the 
day of the nomination at Chicago, to assign you, by your leave, this 
place in the administration. I have delayed so long to communicate 
that purpose in deference to what appeared to me a proper caution 
in the case. Nothing has been developed to change my view in the 
premises ; and I now offer you the place in the hope that you will 
accept it, and with the belief that your position in the public eye, 
your integrity, ability, learning, and great experience, all combine to 
render it an appointment preeminently fit to be made. 

One word more. In regard to the patronage sought with so much 
eagerness and jealousy, I have prescribed for myself the maxim, 
" Justice to all " ; and I earnestly beseech your cooperation in keep- 
ing the maxim good. Your friend and obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 

Hon. William H. Seward, Washington, D. C. 



December 11, 1860. — Reply to a Letter prom William Kellogg, 
M. C, ASKING Advice. 

Entertain no proposition for a compromise in regard to the exten- 
sion of slavery. The instant you do they have us under again : all 
our labor is lost, and sooner or later must be done over. Douglas 
is sure to be again trying to bring in his ''popular sovereignty." 
Vol. I.— 42. 



658 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

Have none of it. The tug has to come, and better now than later. 
You know I think the fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution ought 
to be enforced — to put it in its mildest form, ought not to be resisted. 

December 12, 1860. — Short Editorial printed in the 
"Illinois Journal." 

We hear such frequent allusions to a supposed purpose on the 
part of Mr. Lincoln to call into his cabinet two or three Southern 
gentlemen from the parties opposed to him politically, that we are 
prompted to ask a few questions. 

First. Is it known that any such gentleman of character would 
accept a place in the cabinet ? 

Second. If yea, on what terms does he surrender to Mr. Lincoln, or 
Mr. Lincoln to him, on the political differences between them ; or do 
they enter upon the administration in open opposition to each other ? 

December 13, 1860. — Letter to E. B. Washburne. 
{Private and Confidential.) 
Springfield, Illinois, December 13, 1860. 
Hon. E. B. Washburne. 

My dear Sir: Your long letter received. Prevent, as far as possi- 
ble, any of our friends from demoralizing themselves and our cause 
by entertaining propositions for compromise of any sort on " slavery 
extension." There is no possible compromise upon it but which puts 
us under again, and leaves all our work to do over again. Whether 
it be a Missouri line or Eli Thayer's popular sovereignty, it is all the 
same. Let either be done, and immediately filibustering and extend- 
ing slavery recommences. On that point hold firm, as with a chain 
of steel. Yours as ever, A. Lincoln. 

December 15, 1860. — Letter to John A. Gilmer. 
{Strictly confidential.) 
Springfield, Illinois, December 15, 1860. 
Hon. John A. Gilmer. 

My dear Sir : Yours of the 10th is received. I am greatly disin- 
clined to write a letter on the subject embraced in yours ; and I 
would not do so, even privately as I do, were it not that I fear you 
might misconstrue my silence. Is it desired that I shall shift the 
ground upon which I have been elected ? I cannot do it. You need 
only to acquaint yourself with that ground, and press it on the at- 
tention of the South. It is all in print and easy of access. May I 
be pardoned if I ask whether even you have ever attempted to pro- 
cure the reading of the Republican platform, or my speeches, by the 
Southern people ? If not, what reason have I to expect that any 
additional production of mine would meet a better fate ? It would 
make me appear as if I repented for the crime of having been elected, 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 659 

and was anxious to apologize and beg forgiveness. To so represent 
me would be the principal use made of any letter I might now thrust 
upon the public. My old record cannot be so used ; and that is pre- 
cisely the reason that some new declaration is so much sought. 

Now, my dear sir, be assured that I am not questioning your can- 
dor ; I am only pointing out that while a new letter would hurt the 
cause which I think a just one, you can quite as well effect every 
patriotic object with the old record. Carefully read pages 18. 19, 74, 
75, 88, 89, and 267 of the volume of joint debates between Senator 
Douglas and myself, with the Republican platform adopted at 
Chicago, and all your questions will be substantially answered. I 
have no thought of recommending the abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia, nor the slave-trade among the slave States, 
even on the conditions indicated ; and if I were to make such rec- 
ommendation, it is quite clear Congress would not foUow it. 

As to employing slaves in arsenals and dock-yards, it is a thing I 
never thought of in my life, to my recollection, till I saw your letter ; 
and I may say of it precisely as I have said of the two points above. 

As to the use of patronage in the slave States, where there are 
few or no Republicans, I do not expect to inquire for the politics of 
the appointee, or whether he does or not own slaves. I intend in 
that matter to accommodate the people in the several localities, if they 
themselves wiU allow me to accommodate them. In one word, I never 
have been, am not now, and probably never shall be in a mood of 
harassing the people either North or South. 

On the territorial question I am inflexible, as you see my position in 
the book. On that there is a difference between you and us ; and it is 
the only substantial difference. You think slavery is right and ought 
to be extended ; we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. 
For this neither has any just occasion to be angry with the other. 

As to the State laws, mentioned in your sixth question, I really 
know very little of them. I never have read one. If any of them 
are in conflict with the fugitive-slave clause, or any other part of 
the Constitution, I certainly shall be glad of their repeal ; but I could 
hardly be justified, as a citizen of Illinois, or as President of the 
United States, to recommend the repeal of a statute of Vermont or 
South Carolina. 

With the assurance of my highest regards, I subscribe myself, 
Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. 

P. S. The documents referred to I suppose you will readily find 
in Washington. A. L. 

December 17, I860.— Letter to Thurlow Weed. 

Springfield, Illinois, December 17, 1860. 
Thurlow Weed, Esq. 

My dear Sir: Yours of the 11th. was received two days ago. 
Should the convocation of governors of which you speak seem 
desirous to know my views on the present aspect of things, tell 
them you judge from my speeches that I wiU be inflexible on the 



660 ADDEESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

territorial question ; that I probably think either the Missouri line 
extended, or Douglas's and Eli Thayer's popular sovereignty, would 
lose us everything we gain by the election ; that filibustering for all 
south of us and making slave States of it would follow, in spite of 
us, in either case ; also that I probably think all opposition, real and 
apparent, to the fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution ought to 
be withdrawn. 

I believe you can pretend to find but little, if anything, in my 
speeches about secession. But my opinion is, that no State can in 
any way lawfully get out of the Union without the consent of the 
others; and that it is the duty of the President and other govern- 
ment functionaries to run the machine as it is. 

Truly yours, A. Lincoln. 

December 18, 1860. — Letter to Edward Bates. 
{Confidential.) 
Springfield, Illinois, December 18, 1860. 
My dear Sir: Yours of to-day is just received. Let a little edi- 
torial appear in the '^ Missouri Democrat" in about these words: 

" We have the permission of both Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Bates 
to say that the latter will be offered, and wiU accept, a place in 
the new cabinet, subject, of course, to the action of the Senate. It 
is not yet definitely settled which department will be assigned to 
Mr. Bates." 

Let it go just as above, or with any modification which may seem 
proper to you. Yours very truly, 

Hon. Edward Bates. A. Lincoln. 

December 21, 1860. — Letter to E. B. Washburne. 
(Confidential.) 
Springfield, Illinois, December 21, 1860. 
Hon. E. B. Washburne. 

311/ dear Sir: Last night I received your letter giving an account 
of your interview with General Scott, and for which I thank you. 
Please present my respects to the general, and tell him, confiden- 
tially, I shall be obliged to him to be as well prepared as he can to 
either hold or retake the forts, as the case may require, at and after 
the inauguration. Yours as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 

December 22, 1860. — Letter to A. H. Stephens. 
(For your own eye only.) 

Springfield, Illinois, December 22, 1860. 
Hon. Alexander H. Stephens. 

My dear Sir : Your obliging answer to my short note is just re- 
ceived, and for which please accept my thanks. I fully appreciate 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 661 

the present peril the country is in, and the weight of responsibility 
on me. Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a 
Republican administration would, dii-ectly or indirectly, interfere 
with the slaves, or with them about the slaves ? If they do, I wish 
to assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that 
there is no cause for such fears. The South would be in no more 
danger in this respect than it was in the days of Washington. I 
suppose, however, this does not meet the case. You think slavery is 
right and ought to be extended, while we think it is wrong and ought 
to be restricted. That, I suppose, is the rub. It certainly is the only 
substantial difference between us. Yours very truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

December 24, 1860. — Letter to Hannibal Hamlin. 

Springfield, Illinois, December 24, 1860. 
Hon. Hannibal Hamlin. 

My dear Sir: I need a man of Democratic antecedents from New 
England. I cannot get a fail* share of that element in without. 
This stands in the way of Mr. Adams. I think of Governor Banks, 
Mr. Welles, and Mr. Tuck. Which of them do the New England 
delegation prefer ? Or shall I decide for myself f Yours as ever, 

A. Lincoln. 

December 28, 1860. — Letter to Lyman Trumbull. 

Springfield, Illinois, December 28, 1860. 
Hon. Lyman Trumbull. 

My dear Sir: General Duff Green is out here endeavoring to draw 
a letter out of me. I have written one which herewith I inclose to 
you, and which I believe could not be used to our disadvantage. 
Still, if on consultation with our discreet friends you conclude that 
it may do us harm, do not deliver it. You need not mention that the 
second clause of the letter is copied from the Chicago platform. If, 
on consultation, our friends, including yourself, think it can do no 
harm, keep a copy and deliver the letter to General Green. 

Yours as ever, A. Lincoln. 

[Inclosure.] 
Springfield, Illinois, December 28, 1860. 
General Duff Green. 

My dear Sir : I do not desire any amendment of the Constitution. 
Recognizing, however, that questions of such amendment rightfully 
belong to the American people, I should not feel justified nor in- 
clined to withhold from them, if I could, a fair opportunity of ex- 
pressing their will thereon through either of the modes prescribed 
in the instrument. 

In addition I declare that the maintenance inviolate of the rights 
of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and 



662 ADDEESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment 
exclusively, is essential to that balance of powers on which the per- 
fection and endurance of our political fabric depend ; and I denounce 
the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Ter- 
ritory, no matter under what pretext, as the gravest of crimes. 

I am greatly averse to writing anything for the public at this 
time ; and I consent to the publication of this only upon the condi- 
tion that six of the twelve United States senators for the States of 
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and Texas shall 
sign their names to what is written on this sheet below my name, 
and allow the whole to be published together. 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 

We recommend to the people of the States we represent respec- 
tively, to suspend all action for dismemberment of the Union, at 
least until some act deemed to be violative of our rights shall be 
done by the incoming administration. 



December 29, 1860. — Letter to W. C. Bryant. 

Springfield, Illinois, December 29, 1860. 
Hon. William Cullen Bryant. 

My dear Sir : Yours of the 25th is duly received. The " well- 
known politician " to whom I understand you to allude did write 
me, but did not press upon me any such compromise as you seem to 
suppose, or, in fact, any compromise at all. 

As to the matter of the cabinet, mentioned by you, I can only say 
I shall have a great deal of trouble, do the best I can. I promise 
you that I shall unselfishly try to deal fairly with all men and all 
shades of opinion among our friends. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 



December 31, 1860. — Letter to Salmon P. Chase. 

Springfield, Illinois, December 31, 1860. 
Hon. Salmon P. Chase. 

My dear Sir: In these troublous times I would much like a con- 
ference with you. Please visit me here at once. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 

December 31, 1860. — Letter to Simon Cameron. 

Springfield, Illinois, December 31, 1860. 
Hon. Simon Cabieron. 

My dear Sir : I think fit to notify you now that by your permis- 
sion I shall at the proper time nominate you to the United States 
Senate for confirmation as Secretary of the Treasury, or as Secre- 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 663 

tary of War — which of the two I have not yet definitely decided^ 
Please answer at your earliest convenience. 

Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. 



January 3, 1861. — Letter to "W. H. Seward. 
{Private.) 

Springfield, Illinois, January 3, 1861. 
Hon. W. H. Seward. 

Ml/ dear Sir: Yours without signature was received last night. I 
have been considering your suggestions as to my reaching Wash- 
ington somewhat earlier than is usual. It seems to me the inaugu- 
ration is not the most dangerous point for us. Our adversaries have 
us now clearly at disadvantage. On the second Wednesday of Feb- 
ruary, when the votes should be ofl&ciaUy counted, if the two Houses 
refuse to meet at all, or meet without a quorum of each, where shall 
we be ? I do not think that this counting is constitutionally essen- 
tial to the election; but how are we to proceed in absence of it? 

In view of this, I think it best for me not to attempt appearing in 
Washington till the result of that ceremony is known. It certainly 
would be of some advantage if you could know who are to be at the 
heads of the War and Navy departments; but until I can ascertain 
definitely whether I can get any suitable men from the South, and 
who, and how many, I cannot well decide. As yet I have no word 
from Mr. Grilmer in answer to my request for an interview with him. 
I look for something on the subject, through you, before long. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 



January 3, 1861. — Letter to Simon Cajmeron. 

{Private.) 

Springfield, Illinois, January 3, 1861. 
Hon. Simon Cameron. 

My dear Sir: Since seeing you things have developed which make 
it impossible for me to take you into the cabinet. You will say this 
comes of an interview with McClure ; and this is partly, but not 
wholly, true. The more potent matter is wholly outside of Pennsyl- 
vania; and yet I am not at liberty to specify it. Enough that it ap- 
pears to me to be sufficient. And now I suggest that you write me 
declining the appointment, in which case I do not object to its being 
knoAvn that it was tendered you. Better do this at once, before 
things so change that you cannot honorably decline, and I be com- 
pelled to openly recall the tender. No person living knows or has 
an intimation that I write this letter. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 

P. S. Telegraph me instantly on receipt of this, saying, "All 
right." A. L. 



664 ADDKESSES AND LETTEBS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



January 11, 1861. — Letter to General Winfield Scott. 

Springfield, Illinois, January 11, 1861. 
Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott. 

My dear Sir: I herewith beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of 
your communication of the 4th instant, inclosing (documents Nos. 1, 2, 
3, 4, 5, and 6) copies of correspondence and notes of conversation with 
the President of the United States and the Secretary of War concern- 
ing various mihtary movements suggested by yourself for the better 
protection of the government and the maintenance of public order. 

Permit me to renew to you the assurance of my high appreciation 
of the many past services you have rendered the Union, and of my 
deep gratification at this evidence of your present active exertions 
to maintain the integrity and honor of the nation. 

I shall be highly pleased to receive from time to time such com- 
munications from youi'self as you may deem it proper to make to me. 
Very truly your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. 

January 11, 1861. — Letter to J. T. Hale. 
{Confidential.) 

Springfield, Illinois, January 11, 1861. 
Hon. J. T. Hale. 

My dear Sir : Yours of the 6th is received. I answer it only be- 
cause I fear you would misconstrue my silence. What is our present 
condition ? We have just carried an election on principles fairly 
stated to the people. Now we are told in advance the government 
shaU be broken up unless we surrender to those we have beaten, be- 
fore we take the offices. In this they are either attempting to play 
upon us or they are in dead earnest. Either way, if we surrender, 
it is the end of us and of the government. They will repeat the ex- 
periment upon us ad libitum. A year will not pass tiU we shall have 
to take Cuba as a condition upon which they will stay in the Union. 
They now have the Constitution under which we have lived over 
seventy years, and acts of Congress of theii" own framing, with no 
prospect of then* being changed ; and they can never have a more 
shallow pretext for breaking up the government, or extorting a com- 
promise, than now. There is in my judgment but one compromise 
which would really settle the slavery question, and that would be a 
prohibition against acquiring any more territory. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 

January 12, 1861.— Letter to W. H. Seward. 
{Private.) 
Springfield, Illinois, January 12, 1861. 
Hon. W. H. Seward. 

My dear Sir : Yours of the 8th received. I still hope Mr. Gilmer 
will, on a fair understanding with us, consent to take a place in the 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 665 

cabinet. The preference for him over Mr. Hunt or INIr. Gentry is 
that, up to date, he has a living position in the South, while they 
have not. He is only better than Winter Davis in that he is farther 
South. I fear if we could get we could not safely take more than 
one such man — that is, not more than one who opposed us in the 
election, the danger being to lose the confidence of our own friends. 

Your selection for the State Department having become public, I 
am happy to find scarcely any objection to it. I shall have trouble 
with every other Northern cabinet appointment, so much so that I 
shall have to defer them as long as possible, to avoid being teased to 
insanity to make changes. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 

January 13, 1861. — Letters to Sdion Cameron. 
{Private and confidential.) 

Springfield, Illinois, January 13, 1861. 
Hon. Simon Cameron. 

My dear Sir : At the suggestion of Mr. Sanderson, and with hearty 
good- will besides, I herewith send you a letter dated January 3 — 
the same in date as the last you received from me. I thought best 
to give it that date, as it is in some sort to take the place of that let- 
ter. I learu, both by a letter from Mr. Swett and from Mr. Sander- 
son, that your feelings were wounded by the terms of my letter 
really of the 3d. I wrote that letter under great anxiety, and per- 
haps I was not so guarded in its terms as I should have been ; but I 
beg you to be assured I intended no offense. My gi-eat object was 
to have you act quickly, if possible before the matter should be com- 
plicated with the Pennsylvania senatorial election. Destroy the of- 
fensive letter, or return it to me 

I say to you now I have not doubted that you would perform the 
duties of a department ably and faithfully. Nor have I for a mo- 
ment intended to ostracize your friends. If I should make a cabi- 
net appointment for Pennsylvania before I reach Washington, I will 
not do so without consulting you, and giving all the weight to your 
views and wishes which I consistently can. This I have always 
intended. Yours truly, 

A. Lincoln. 
[Inclosure,] 

Springfield, Illinois, January 3, 1861. 
Hon. Simon Cameron. 

My dear Sir : When you were here, about the last of December, I 
handed you a letter saying I should at the proper time nominate you 
to the Senate for a place in the cabinet. It is due to you and to 
truth for me to say you were here by my invitation, and not upon 
any suggestion of your own. You have not as yet signified to me 
whether you would accept the appointment, and with much pain I 
now say to you that you will relieve me from great embarrassment 
by allowing me to recall the offer. This springs from an unexpected 
complicatiou, and not from any change of my view as to the ability 
or faithfulness with which you would discharge the duties of the 



666 ADDRESSES AND LETTEES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

place. I now think I will not definitely fix upon any appointment 
for Pennsylvania until I reach Washington. 

Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. 



January 14, 1861. — Letter to General John E. "Wool. 

Springfield, Illinois, January 14, 1861. 
General John E. Wool. 

My dear Sir: Many thanks for your patriotic and generous letter 
of the 11th instant. As to how far the military force of the govern- 
ment may become necessary to the preservation of the Union, and 
more particularly how that force can best be directed to the object, 
I must chiefly rely upon General Scott and yourself. It affords me 
the profoundest satisfaction to know that with both of you judg- 
ment and feeling go heartily with your sense of professional and 
oflftcial duty to the work. 

It is true that I have given but little attention to the military de- 
partment of government ; but, be assured, I cannot be ignorant as to 
who General Wool is, or what he has done. With my highest esteem 
and gratitude, I subscribe myself 

Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. 



January 23, 1861. — Letter to General Edwin C. Wilson. 

(Private.) 
Springfield, Illinois, January 23, 1861. 
General Edwin C. Wilson. 

Bear Sir: Your ofiicial communication of the 31st ultimo, ad- 
dressed to Hon. A. Lincoln, was duly received. 

Mr. Lincoln desires me to answer that while he does not now deem 
it necessary to avail himself of the services you so kindly offer him, 
he is nevertheless gratified to have this assurance from yourself that 
the militia of the State of Pennsylvania is loyal to the Constitution 
and the Union, and stands ready to rally to their support and main- 
tenance in the event of trouble or danger. Yours truly, 

Jno. G. Nicolay. 



January 26, 1861.— Letter to R. A. Cameron and Others, 

Committee. 

Springfield, January 26, 1861. 
Messrs. Cameron, Marsh, and Branham, Committee. 

Gentlemen : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, by your 
hands, of a copy of a joint resolution adopted by the legislature of 
the State of Indiana, on the 15th instant, inviting me to visit that 
honorable body on my way to the Federal capital. 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 667 

Expressing my profound gratitude for this flattering testimonial 
of their regard and esteem, be pleased to bear to them my acceptance 
of their kind invitation, and inform them that I will endeavor to 
visit them, in accordance with their expressed desire, on the 12th of 
February next. 

With feelings of high consideration, I remain 

Your humble servant, A. Lincoln. 



January 28, 1861. — Letter to James Sulgrove and Others, 

Committee. 

Springfield, Illinois, January 28, 1861. 
Messrs. James Sulgrove, Erie Locke, William Wallace, and 
John T. Wood, Committee. 
OentUmen : I received to-day from the hands of Mr. Locke a 
transcript of the resolutions passed at a meeting of the citizens of 
Indianapolis, inviting me to visit that city on my route to Wash- 
ington. 

Permit me to express to the citizens of Indianapolis, through you, 
their committee, my cordial thanks for the honor shown me. I ac- 
cept with great pleasure the invitation so kindly tendered, and will 
be in your city on the 12th day of February next. 

Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. 



January 28, 1861. — Letter to J. W. Tillman. 

Springfield, Illinois, January 28, 1861. 
J. W. Tillman, Esq. 

Dear Sir: Your letter of the 24th instant addressed to Hon. A. 
Lincoln, inviting him, on behalf of the State Central Committee 
of Michigan, to pass through that State on his journey to Wash- 
ington, has been received. 

He desires me to reply, with profound thanks for the honor thus 
cordially tendered him, that having accepted similar invitations 
to pass through the capitals of the States of Indiana and Ohio, 
he regrets that it will be out of his power to accept the courtesies 
and hospitalities of the people of Michigan so kindly proffered 
him through yourself and the committee. 

Yours truly, Jno. G. Ntcolay. 

January 28, 1861. — Letter to Edward Bates. 

Springfield, Illinois, January 28, 1861. 
Hon. Edward Bates. 

Dear Sir: Hon. A. Lincoln desires me to write to you that he 
has determined on starting from here for Washington city on 
the 11th of February. He will go through Indianapolis, Colum- 



668 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 

bus, Pittsbui-g, Albany, New York, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and 
Baltimore. 

Albany, New York, and Philadelphia are not finally decided 
npon, though it is probable that he will also take them in his route. 
Tne journey will occupy twelve or fifteen days. 

Yours truly, Jno. G. Nicolay. 

February 1, 1861. — Letter to E. D. Morgan. 

Springfield, Illinois, February 1, 18G1. 
Hon. E. D. Morgan. 

Dear Sir : Your letter of the 19th ultimo addressed to Hon. A. 
Lincoln, was duly received, in which you invite him to visit Albany 
on his route to Washington, and tender him the hospitahties of the 
State and your home. 

In accordance with the answer just sent to the telegraphic mes- 
sage received from yourself a few minutes since, Mr. Lincoln desires 
me to write that it has for some little time been his purpose to pass 
through Albany, and that he would have answered you to that same 
effect before this, but for the fact that as the legislatures of Indiana, 
Ohio, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania had by resolution invited him to 
visit them, he thought it probable that a similar resolution would be 
adopted by the legislature of New York, and he had therefore waited 
to reply to both invitations together. 

He will cheerfully accede to any arrangements yourself and the 
citizens of Albany may make for his stay, providing only no formal 
ceremonies wasting any great amount of time be adopted. 

Yours truly, Jno. G. Nicolay. 



February 1, 1861. — Letter to W. H. Seward. 
{Private and confidential.) 

Springfield, Illinois, February 1, 1861. 
Hon. W. H. Seward. 

My dear Sir : On the 21st ult. Hon. W. Kellogg, a Republican 
member of Congress of this State, whom you probably know, was 
here in a good deal of anxiety seeking to ascertain to what extent I 
would be consenting for our friends to go in the way of compromise 
on the now vexed question. While he was with me I received a de- 
spatch from Senator Trumbull, at Washington, alluding to the same 
question and telling me to await letters, I therefore told Mr. Kel- 
logg that when I should receive these letters posting me as to the 
state of affairs at Washington, I would write to you, requesting you 
to let him see my letter. To my surprise, when the letters men- 
tioned by Judge Trumbull came they made no allusion to the " vexed 
question." This baffled me so much that I was near not writing you 
at all, in compliance to what I have said to Judge Kellogg. I say 
now, however, as I have all the while said, that on the territorial 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 669 

question — that is, the question of extending slavery under the 
national auspices — I am inflexible. I am for no compromise which 
assists or permits the extension of the institution on soil owned by 
the nation. And any trick by which the nation is to acquire terri- 
tory, and then allow some local authority to spread slavery over it, 
is as obnoxious as any other. I take it that to effect some such re- 
sult as this, and to put us again on the highroad to a slave empire, 
is the object of all these proposed compromises. I am against it. 
As to fugitive slaves, District of Columbia, slave-trade ainong the 
slave States, and whatever springs of necessity from the fact that 
the institution is amongst us, I care but little, so that what is done 
be comely and not altogether outrageous. Nor do I care much about 
New Mexico, if fui'ther extension were hedged against. 

Yours very truly, A. Lincoln. 



February 4, 1861. — Letter to Thurlow Weed. 

Springfield, Illinois, February 4, 1861. 

Dear Sir: I have both your letter to myself and that to Judge 
Davis, in relation to a certain gentleman in your State claiming to 
dispense patronage in my name, and also to be authorized to use my 
name to advance the chances of Mr. Greeley for an election to the 
United States Senate. 

It is very strange that such things should be said by any one. The 
gentleman you mention did speak to me of Mi\ Greeley in connec- 
tion with the senatorial election, and I replied in terms of kindness 
toward Mr. Greeley, which I really feel, but always with an expressed 
protest that my name must not be used in the senatorial election in 
favor of, or against, any one. Any other representation of me is a 
misrepresentation. 

As to the matter of dispensing patronage, it perhaps wiU siu*prise 
you to learn that I have information that you claim to have my au- 
thority to arrange that matter in New York. I do not believe that 
you have so claimed ; but still so some men say. On that subject 
you know all I have said to you is " Justice to all," and I have said 
nothing more particulai* to any one. I say this to reassure you that 
I have not changed my position. In the hope, however, that you 
will not use my name in the matter, I am 

Yours truly, A. Lincoln. 



February 4, 1861.— Letter to E. D. Morgan. 

Springfield, Illinois, Febiniary 4, 1861. 

Sir: Your letter of the 30th ultimo, inviting me on behalf of the 
legislature of New York to pass through that State on my way to 
Washington, and tendering me the hospitalities of her authorities 
and people, has been duly received. 

With feelings of deep gratitude to you and them for this testimo- 



670 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

nial of regard and esteem, I beg you to notify them that I accept the 
invitation so kindly extended. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 
His Excellency Edwin D. Morgan, 

Governor of New York. 
P. S, Please let ceremonies be only such as to take the least time 
possible. A. L. 

February 5, 1861.— Letter to Edward Bates. 

Springfield, Illinois, February 5, 1861. 
Hon. Edward Bates. 

Dear Sir: Hon. A. Lincoln directs me to say to you that in case 
you intend going to Washington about the time he proposes to start 
(the 11th instant), he would be pleased to have you accompany him 
on the trip he contemplates. 

He does not desire to have you do this, however, at the cost of any 
inconvenience to yourself, or the derangement of any plans you may 
have already formed. Yours truly, 

Jno. G. Nicolay. 

P. S. Mr. Lincoln intended to have said this to you himself when 
you were here, but in his hurry it escaped his attention. 

J. G. N. 

February 6, 1861. — Letter to Charles S. Olden. 

Springfield, Illinois, February 6, 1861. 
Sir: Your letter of the 1st instant inviting me, in compliance with 
the request of the legislature of New Jersey, to visit your State cap- 
ital while on my journey to Washington, has been duly received. 

I accept the invitation, with much gratitude to you and them for 
the kindness and honor thus offered. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 
His Excellency Charles S. Olden, 

Governor of New Jersey. 

P. S. Please arrange no ceremonies that will waste time. 



February 7, 1861. — Letter to the Governor and the Legisla- 
ture OF Massachusetts. 

Springfield, Illinois, February 7, 1861. 

His Excellency the Governor, the President of the Senate, 

AND the Speaker of the House of Representatives for 

THE Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

Gentlemen : Your kind letter of February 1, with a copy of the 

resolutions of the General Court, inviting me, in the name of the 

government and people of Massachusetts, to visit the State and 

accept its hospitality previous to the time of the presidential in- 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 671 

augui-atiou, is gratefully received by the hand of Colonel Horace 
Binney Sargent; and, in answer, I am constrained to say want of 
time denies me the pleasure of accepting the invitation so gener- 
ously tendered. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 

February 7, 1861. — Letter to William Dennison. 

Springfield, Illinois, February 7, 1861. 
Sir : Your letter of the 31st ultimo, inviting me, on behalf of the 
legislature of Ohio, to visit Columbus on my way to Washington, 
has been duly received. 

With profound gratitude for the mark of respect and honor thus 
cordially tendered me by you and them, I accept the invitation. 
Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. 

His Excellency William Dennison, 

Governor of Ohio. 
Please arrange no ceremonies which will waste time. 



February 7, 1861. — Letter to J. G. Lowe and Others, 
Committee. 

Springfield, Illinois, February 7, 1861. 
Gentlemen : Your note of to-day, inviting me while on my way to 
Washington to pass through the town and accept the hospitalities 
of the citizens of Dayton, Ohio, is before me. 

A want of the necessary time makes it impossible for me to stop 
in your town. If it will not retard my arrival at or departure from 
the city of Columbus, I will endeavor to pass through and at least 
bow to the friends there; if, however, it would in any wise delay me, 
they must not even expect this, but be content instead to receive 
through you my warmest thanks for the kindness and cordiality 
with which they have tendered this invitation. 

Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. 

Messrs. J. G. Lowe, T. A. Phillips, 

AND W. H. Gillespie, Committee. 

February 8, 1861. — Letter to George B. Senter and Others, 

Committee. 

Springfield, Illinois, February 8, 1861. 
George B. Senter and Others, Committee. 

Gentlemen : Yours of the 6th, inviting me, in compliance with a 
resolution of the city council of the city of Cleveland, Ohio, to visit 
that city on my contemplated journey to Washington, is duly at hand, 
and in answer I have the honor to accept the invitation. The time of 
arrival and other details are subject to future arrangement. 

Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. 



672 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



February 8, 1861.— Letter to A. D. Finney and Others, 

Committee. 

Springfield, Illinois, February 8, 1861. 
Hon. a. D. Finney and Others, Committee. 

Oentlemen : Yours of the 4th, inviting me on behalf of the legis- 
latm-e of Pennsylvania to \asit Harrisburg on my way to the Federal 
capital, is received ; and, in answer, allow me to say I gratefully ac- 
cept the tendered honor. 

The time of arrival, and other details, are subject to future arrange- 
ments. Your obedient servant, 

A. Lincoln. 



-"^ February 11, 1861.— Farewell Address at Springfield, 

Illinois. 

My Friends : No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feel- 
ing of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of 
these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a 
century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my 
children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not know- 
ing when or whether ever I may return, with a task before me 
greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the 
assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot 
succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in Him 
who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for 
good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care 
commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, 
I bid you an affectionate farewell. 



February 11, 1861. — Reply to the Address of Welcome at 
Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Governor Morton and Fellow-citizens of the State of Indiana: Most 
heartily do I thank you for this magnificent reception ; and while 
I cannot take to myself any share of the compliment thus paid, more 
than that which pertains to a mere instrument — an accidental in- 
strument perhaps I should say — of a great cause, I yet must look 
upon it as a magnificent reception, and as such most heartily do I 
thank you for it. You have been pleased to address yourself to me 
chiefly in behalf of this glorious Union in which we live, in all of 
which you have my hearty sympathy, and, as far as may be within 
my power, will have, one and inseparably, my hearty cooperation. 
While I do not expect, upon this occasion, or until I get to Washing- 
ton, to attempt any lengthy speech, I will only say that to the salva- 
tion of the Union there_^eeds but one single thing^ the hearts of a 
people like yours. [When the people rise in mass m behalf of the 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 673 

Union and the liberties of this country, truly may it be said, " The 
gates of hell cannot prevail against them." In all trying posi- 
tions in which I shall be placed, and doubtless I shall be placed 
in many such, my reliance will be upon you and the people of the 
United States ; and I wish you to remember, now and forever, that 
it is your business, and not mine 3/ that if the union of these States 
and the liberties of this people shall be lost, it is but little to any one 
man of fifty-two years of age, but a great deal to the thirty millions 
of people who inhabit these United States, and to their posterity in 
all coming time. It is your business to rise up and preserve the Union 
and libei^ for yourselves, and not for me. I appeal to you again 
to /constantly bear in mind that not with politicians, not with Pres- 
idents, not with office-seekers, but with you, is the question : Shall 
the Union and shall the liberties of this country be preserved to 
the latest generations? , 



February 12 1861. — Address to the Legislature of Indiana 

AT Indianapolis. 

Fellow-citizens of the State of Indiana : I am here to thank you 
much for this magnificent welcome, and still more for the generous 
support given by your State to that political cause which I think is 
the true and just cause of the whole country and the whole world. 
Solomon says there is " a time to keep silence," and when men wrangle 
by the month with no certainty that they mean the same thing, while 
using the same word, it perhaps were as well if they would keep 
silence. The words " coercion " and " invasion " are much used in 
these days, and often with some temper and hot blood. Let us 
make sure, if we can, that we do not misunderstand the meaning of 
those who use them. Let us get exact definitions of these words^ 
not from dictionaries, but from the men themselves, who certainly 
deprecate the things they would represent by the use of words. 
What, then, is "coercion"? What is ''invasion"? Would the 
marching of an army into South Carolina without the consent of 
her people, and with hostile intent toward them, be "invasion"? I 
certainly think it would ; and it would be " coercion " also if the 
South Carolinians were forced to submit. But if the United States 
should merely hold and retake its own forts and other property, and 
collect the duties on foreign importations, or even withhold the 
mails from places where they were habitually violated, would any 
or all of these things be "invasion" or "coercion"? Do our pro- 
fessed lovers of the Union, but who spitefully resolve that they will 
resist coercion and invasion, understand that such things as these 
on the part of the United States would be coercion or invasion of a 
State ? If so, their idea of means to preserve the object of their 
great affection would seem to be exceedingly thin and airy. If sick, 
the little pills of the homeopathist would be much too large for them 
to swallow. In their view, the Union as a family relation would 
seem to be no regular marriage, but rather a sort of " free-love " ar- 
rangement, to be maintained only on "passional attraction." By 
Vol. I.— 43. 



674 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

the way, in what consists the special sacredness of a State ? I speak 
not of the position assigned to a State in the Union by the Constitu- 
tion ; for that, by the bond, we all recognize. That position, how- 
ever, a State cannot carry out of the Union with it. I speak of that 
assumed primary right of a State to rule all which is less than itself, 
and ruin all which is larger than itself. If a State and a county, in 
a given case, should be equal in extent of territory, and equal in 
number of inhabitants, in what, as a matter of principle, is the State 
better than the county? Would an exchange of names be an ex- 
change of rights upon principle ? On what rightful principle may 
a State, being not more than one fiftieth part of the nation in soil 
and population, break up the nation and then coerce a proportion- 
ally larger subdivision of itself in the most arbitrary way ? What 
mysterious right to play tyrant is conferred on a district of country 
with its people, by merely calling it a State ? Fellow-citizens, I am 
not asserting anything ; I am merely asking questions for you to 
consider. And now allow me to bid you farewell. 



February 12, 1861. — Address to the Mayor and Citizens 
OF Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Mr. Mayor, Ladies, and Gentlemen : Twenty-four hours ago, at the 
capital of Indiana, I said to myself I have never seen so many peo- 
ple assembled together in winter weather. I am no longer able to 
say that. But it is what might reasonably have been expected — 
that this great city of Cincinnati would thus acquit herself on such 
an occasion. My friends, I am entirely overwhelmed by the magnifi- 
cence of the reception which has been given, I will not say to me, but 
to the President-elect of the United States of America. Most heartily 
do I thank you, one and all, for it. 

I am reminded by the address of your worthy mayor that this 
reception is given not by any one political party, and even if I had 
not been so reminded by his Honor I could not have failed to know 
the fact by the extent of the multitude I see before me now. I could 
not look upon this vast assemblage without being made aware that 
all parties were united in this reception. This is as it should be. It 
is as it should have been if Senator Douglas had been elected. It is 
as it should have been if Mr. Bell had been elected ; as it should 
have been if Mr. Breckinridge had been elected; as it should ever 
be when any citizen of the United States is constitutionally elected 
President of the United States. Allow me to say that I think what 
has occurred here to-day could not have occurred in any other coun- 
try on the face of the globe, without the influence of the free institu- 
tions which we have unceasingly enjoyed for three quarters of a 
century. 

There is no country where the people can turn out and enjoy this 
day precisely as they please, save under the benign influence of the 
free mstitutions of our land. 

I hope that, although we have some threatening national difficul- 
ties now — I hope that while these free institutions shall continue to 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 675 

be in the enjoyment of millions of free people of the United States, 
we will see repeated every four years what we now witness. 

In a few short years I, and every other individual man who is now 
living, will pass away ; I hope that our national difficulties will also 
pass away, and I hope we shall see in the streets of Cincinnati — 
good old Cincinnati — for centuries to come, once every four years, 
her people give such a reception as this to the constitutionally- 
elected President of the whole United States. I hope you shall all 
join in that reception, and that you shall also welcome your brethren 
from across the river to participate in it. We will welcome them in 
every State of the Union, no matter where they are from. From away 
South we shall extend them a cordial good- will, when our present 
difficulties shall have been forgotten and blown to the winds forever. 

I have spoken but once before this in Cincinnati. That was a 
year previous to the late presidential election. On that occasion, 
m a playful manner, but with sincere words, I addressed much 
of what I said to the Keutuckians. I gave my opinion that we as 
Republicans would ultimately beat them as Democrats, but that they 
could postpone that result longer by nominating Senator Douglas 
for the presidency than they could in any other way. They did not, 
in any true sense of the word, nominate Mr. Douglas, and the result 
has come certainly as soon as ever I expected, I also told them how 
I expected they would be treated after they should have been beaten ; 
and I now wish to recall their attention to what I then said upon 
that subject. I then said, "When we do as we say, — beat you, — 
you perhaps want to know what we will do with you. I will tell you, 
so far as I am authorized to speak for the opposition, what we mean 
to do with you. We mean to treat you, as near as we possibly can, 
as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison treated you. We mean to 
leave you alone, and in no way to interfere with your institutions; 
to abide by all and every compromise of the Constitution ; and, in 
a word, coming back to the original proposition, to treat you, so far 
as degenerate men — if we have degenerated — may, according to 
the examples of those noble fathers, Washington, Jefferson, and 
Madison. We mean to remember that you are as good as we; that 
there is no difference between us other than the difference of circum- 
stances. We mean to recognize and bear in mind always that you 
have as good hearts in your bosoms as other people, or as we claim 
to have, and treat you accordingly." 

Fellow-citizens of Kentucky ! — friends ! — brethren ! may I call you 
in my new position? I see no occasion, and feel no inclination, to 
retract a word of this. If it shall not be made good, be assured the 
fault shall not be mine. 

And now, fellow-citizens of Ohio, have you, who agree with him 
who now addresses you in political sentiment — have you ever enter- 
tained other sentiments toward our brethren of Kentucky than those 
I have expressed to you? If not, then why shall we not, as hereto- 
fore, be recognized and acknowledged as brethren again, living in 
peace and harmony again one with another ? I take your response 
as the most reliable evidence that it may be so, trusting, through 
the good sense of the American people, on aU sides of all rivers in 



676 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

America, under the providence of God, who has never deserted us. 
that we shall again be brethren, forgetting all parties, ignoring all 
parties. My friends, I now bid you farewell. 

February 12, 1861.— Address to Germans at Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Mr. Chairman : I thank you and those whom you represent for the 
compliment you have paid me by tendering me this address. In so 
far as there is an allusion to our present national difficulties, which 
expresses, as you have said, the views of the gentlemen present, I 
shall have to beg pardon for not entering fully upon the questions 
which the address you have now read suggests. 

I deem it my duty — a duty which I owe to my constituents — to 
you, gentlemen, that I should wait until the last moment for a devel- 
opment of the present national difficulties before I express myself 
decidedly as to what course I shall pursue. I hope, then, not to be 
false to anything that you have to expect of me. 

I agree with you, Mr. Chairman, that the working-men are the 
basis of all governments, for the plain reason that they are the more 
numerous, and as you added that those were the sentiments of the 
gentlemen present, representing not only the working-class, but citi- 
zens of other callings than those of the mechanic, I am happy to 
concur with you in these sentiments, not only of the native-born 
citizens, but also of the Germans and foreigners from other countries. 

Mr. Chairman, I hold that while man exists it is his duty to im- 
prove not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating 
mankind; and therefore, without entering upon the details of the 
question, I will simply say that I am for those means which will give 
the greatest good to the greatest number. 

In regard to the homestead law, I have to say that in so far as 
the government lands can be disposed of, I am in favor of cutting up 
the wild lands into parcels, so that every poor man may have a home. 

In regard to the Germans and foreigners, I esteem them no better 
than other people, nor any worse. It is not my nature, when I see 
a people borne down by the weight of their shackles — the oppres- 
sion of tyranny — to make their life more bitter by heaping upon 
them greater burdens; but rather would I do all in my power to 
raise the yoke than to add anything that would tend to crush them. 

Inasmuch as our country is extensive and new, and the countries 
of Europe are densely populated, if there are any abroad who desire 
to make this the land of their adoption, it is not in my heart to throw 
aught in their way to prevent them from coming to the United States. 

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I wiU bid you an affectionate 
farewell. 

February 13, 1861.— Address to the Legislature op Ohio 
AT Columbus. 

Mr. President and Mr. Spealter, and Gentlemen of the General As- 
sembly of Ohio : It is true, as has been said by the president of the 
Senate, that very great responsibility rests upon me in the position 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEES OP ABKAHAM LINCOLN 677 

to which the votes of the American people have called me. I am 
deeply sensible of that weighty responsibility. I cannot but know 
what you all know, that without a name, perhaps without a reason 
why I should have a name, there has fallen upon me a task such as 
did not rest even upon the Father of his Country; and so feeling, I 
can turn and look for that support without which it will be impossi- 
ble for me to perform that great task. I turn, then, and look to the 
American people, and to that God who has never forsaken them. 
Allusion has been made to the interest felt in relation to the policy of 
the new administration. In this I have received from some a degree 
of credit for having kept silence, and from others some deprecatiou. 
I still think that I was right. . . . 

In the varying and repeatedly shifting scenes of the present, and 
without a precedent which could enable me to judge by the past, it 
lias seemed fitting that before speaking upon the difficulties of the 
country I should have gained a view of the whole field, being at 
liberty to modify and change the course of policy as future events 
may make a change necessary. 

I have not maintained silence from any want of real anxiety. It is 
a good thing that there is no more than anxiety, for there is nothing 
going wrong. It is a consoling circumstance that when we look out 
there is nothing that really hurts anybody. We entertain different 
views upon political questions, but nobody is suffering anything. 
This is a most consoling circumstance, and from it we may conclude 
that all we want is time, patience, and a reliance on that God who 
has never forsaken this people. 

Fellow-citizens, what I have said I have said altogether extempo- 
raneously, and I wiU now come to a close. 

February 14, 1861. — Address at Steubenville, Ohio. 

I fear that the great confidence placed in my ability is unfounded. 
Indeed, I am sure it is. Encompassed by vast difficulties as I am, 
nothing shall be wanting on my part, if sustained by God and the 
American people. I believe the devotion to the Constitution is equally 
great on both sides of the river. It is only the different understand- 
ing of that instrument that causes difficulty„__The only dispute on 
both sides is, " What are their rights ? " pRthe majority should not 
rule, who would be the judge ? Where is such a judge to be found ? y 

We should all be bound by the majority of the American people; 
if not, then the minority must control. Would that be right? 
Would it be just or generous ? Assuredly not. I reiterate that the 
majority should rule. If I adopt a wrong policy, the opportunity 
for condemnation will occur in four years' time. Then I can be 
turned out, and a better man with better views put in m y_placey ^ 

February 15, 1861.— Address at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. 

I most cordially thank his Honor Mayor Wilson, and the citizens 
of Pittsburg generally, for their flattering reception. I am the more 



678 ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

grateful because I know that it is not given to me alone, but to the 
cause I represent, which clearly proves to me their good-will, and 
that sincere feeling is at the bottom of it. And here I may remark 
that in every short address I have made to the people, in every crowd 
through which I have passed of late, some allusion has been made to 
the present distracted condition of the country. It is natural to ex- 
pect that I should say something on this subject j but to touch upon 
it at all would involve an elaborate discussion of a great many ques- 
tions and circumstances, requiring more time than I can at present 
command, and would, perhaps, unnecessarily commit me upon mat- 
ters which have not yet fully developed themselves. The condition of 
the country is an extraordinary one, and fills the mind of every pa- 
triot with anxiety. It is my intention to give this subject all the 
consideration I possibly can before specially deciding in regard to it, 
so that when I do speak it may be as nearly right as possible. When 
I do speak I hope I may say nothing in opposition to the spirit of 
the Constitution, contrary to the integrity of the Union, or which 
will prove inimical to the liberties of the people, or to the peace of 
the whole country. And, furthermore, when the time arrives for me 
to speak on this great subject, I hope I may say nothing to disappoint 
the people generally throughout the country, especially if the expec- 
tation has been based upon anything which I may have heretofore 
said. Notwithstanding the troubles across the river [the speaker 
pointing southwardly across the Monongahela, and smiling], there 
is no crisis but an artificial one. What is there now to warrant the 
condition of affairs presented by our friends over the river f Take 
even their own view of the questions involved, and there is nothing 
to justify the course they are pursuing. I repeat, then, there is no 
crisis, excepting such a one as may be gotten up at any time by tur- 
bulent men aided by designing politicians. My advice to them, under 
such circumstances, is to keep cool. If the great American people 
only keep their temper on both sides of the line, the troubles will come 
to an end, and the question which now distracts the country will be 
settled, just as surely as all other difficulties of a like character which 
have originated in this government have been adjusted. Let the 
people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other 
clouds have cleared away in due time, so wiU this great nation con- 
tinue to prosper as heretofore. But, fellow-citizens, I have spoken 
longer on this subject than I intended at the outset. 

It is often said that the tariff is the specialty of Pennsylvania. 
Assuming that direct taxation is not to be adopted, the tariff ques- 
tion must be as durable as the government itself. It is a question 
of national housekeeping. It is to the government what replenish- 
ing the meal-tub is to the family. Ever-varying circumstances will 
require frequent modifications as to the amount needed and the 
sources of supply. So far there is little difference of opinion among 
the people. It is as to whether, and how far, duties on imports shall 
be adjusted to favor home production in the home market, that con- 
troversy begins. One party insists that such adjustment oppresses 
one class for the advantage of another ; while the other party argues 
that, with all its incidents, in the long run all classes are benefited. 
In the Chicago platform there is a plank upon this subject which 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 679 

should be a general law to the incoming administration. We should 
do neither more nor less than we gave the people reason to believe 
we would when they gave us theii- votes. Permit me, fellow-citizens, 
to read the tariff plank of the Chicago platform, or rather have it 
read in your hearing by one who has younger eyes. 

Mr. Lincoln's private secretary then read Section 12 of the Chicago 
platform, as follows: 

That while providing revenue for the support of the General Government 
by duties upon imports, sound policy requires such an adjustment of these 
imposts as will encourage the development of the industrial interest of the 
whole country ; and we commend that pohcy of national exchanges which 
secures to working-men Uberal wages, to agriculture remunerating prices, 
to mechanics and manufacturers adequate reward for their skill, labor, and 
enterprise, and to the nation commercial prosperity and independence. 

Mr. Lincoln resumed : As with all general propositions, doubtless 
there will be shades of difference in construing this. I have by no 
means a thoroughly matured judgment upon this subject, especially 
as to details ; some general ideas are about all. I have long thought 
it would be to our advantage to produce any necessary article at 
home which can be made of as good quality and with as little labor 
at home as abroad, at least by the difference of the carrying from 
abroad. In such case the carrying is demonstrably a dead loss of 
labor. For instance, labor being the true standard of value, is it 
not plain that if equal labor get a bar of raili-oad iron out of a mine 
in England, and another out of a mine in Pennsylvania, each can be 
laid down in a track at home cheaper than they could exchange 
countries, at least by the carriage ? If there be a present cause why 
one can be both made and carried cheaper in money price than the 
other can be made without carrying, that cause is an unnatural and 
injurious one, and ought gradually, if not rapidly, to be removed. 
The condition of the treasury at this time would seem to render an 
early revision of the tariff indispensable. The Morrill [tariff] biU, 
now pending before Congress, may or may not become a law. I am 
not posted as to its particular provisions, but if they are generally 
satisfactory, and the bill shall now pass, there will be an end for the 
present. If, however, it shall not pass, I suppose the whole subject 
will be one of the most pressing and important for the next Congress. 
By the Constitution, the executive may recommend measures which 
he may think proper, and he may veto those he thinks improper, and 
it is supposed that he may add to these certain indirect influences to 
affect the action of Congress. My political education strongly in- 
clines me against a very free use of any of these means by the ex- 
ecutive to control the legislation of the country. As a rule, I think it 
better that Congress should originate as well as perfect its measures 
without external bias. I therefore would rather recommend to 
every gentlemen who knows he is to be a member of the next Con- 
gress to take an enlarged view, and post himself thoroughly, so as to 
contribute his part to such an adjustment of the tariff as shall pro- 
duce a sufficient revenue, and in its other bearings, so far as possible, 
be just and equal to all sections of the country and classes of the 
people. 



680 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



Febniary 15, 1861.— Address at Cleveland, Ohio. 

Fellow-citizens of Cleveland and Ohio : "We have come here upon a 
very inclement afternoon. We have marched for two miles through 
the rain and the mud. 

The large numbers that have turned out under these circumstances 
testify that you are in earnest about something, and what is that some- 
thing! I would not have you suppose that I think this extreme ear- 
nestness is about me. I should be exceedingly sorry to see such devo- 
tion if that were the case. But I know it is paid to something worth 
more than any one man, or any thousand or ten thousand men. You 
have assembled to testify your devotion to the Constitution, to the 
Union, and the laws, to the perpetual liberty of the people of this coun- 
try. It is, fellow-citizens, for the whole American people, and not for 
one single man alone, to advance the great cause of the Union and the 
Constitution. And in a country like this, where every man bears on 
his face the marks of intelligence, where every man's clothing, if I 
may so speak, shows signs of comfort, and every dwelling signs of 
happiness and contentment, where schools and churches abound on 
every side, the Union can never be in danger. I would, if I could, 
instil some degree of patriotism and confidence into the political 
mind in relation to this matter. 

Frequent allusion is made to the excitement at present existing in 
our national politics, and it is as well that I should also allude to it 
here. I think that there is no occasion for any excitement. I think 
the crisis, as it is called, is altogether an artificial one. In all parts 
of the nation there are differences of opinion on politics ; there are 
differences of opinion even here. You did not aU vote for the per- 
son who now addresses you, although quite enough of you did for aU 
practical purposes, to be sure. 

What they do who seek to destroy the Union is altogether arti- 
ficial. What is happening to hurt them ? Have they not all their 
rights now as they ever have had ? Do not they have their fugitive 
slaves returned now as ever ? Have they not the same Constitution 
that they have lived under for seventy-odd years ? Have they not 
a position as citizens of this common country, and have we any 
power to change that position? [Cries of "No!"] What then is 
the matter with them ? Why aU this excitement ? Why all these 
complaints ! As I said before, this crisis is altogether artificial. It 
has no foundation in fact. It can't be argued up, and it can't be 
argued down. Let it alone, and it wiU go down of itself. 

I have not strength, fellow-citizens, to address you at great length, 
and I pray that you will excuse me ; but rest assured that rny thanks 
are as cordial and sincere for the ef&cient aid which you will give to 
the good cause in working for the good of the nation, as for the 
votes you gave me last fall. 

There is one feature that causes me great pleasure, and that is to 
learn that this reception is given, not alone by those with whom I 
chance to agree politically, but by all parties. I think I am not 
selfish when I say this is as it should be. If Judge Douglas had 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 681 

been chosen President of the United States, and had this evening 
been passing through your city, the Republicans should have joined 
his supporters in welcoming him just as his friends have joined with 
mine to-night. If we do not make common cause to save the good 
old ship of the Union on this voyage, nobody will have a chance to 
pilot her on another voyage. 

To all of you, then, who have done me the honor to participate in 
this cordial welcome, I return most sincerely my thanks, not for my- 
self, but for Liberty, the Constitution, and Union. 

I bid you an affectionate farewell. 



February 16, 1861. — Address at Buffalo, New York. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens of Buffalo and the State ofNetv York : 
I am here to thank you briefly for this grand reception given to me, 
not personally, but as the representative of our great and beloved 
country. Yom- worthy mayor has been pleased to mention, in his 
address to me, the fortunate and agreeable journey which I have had 
from home, on my rather circuitous route to the Federal capital. I 
am very happy that he was enabled in truth to congratulate myself 
and company on that fact. It is true we have had nothing thus far 
to mar the pleasure of the trip. We have not been met alone by those 
who assisted in giving the election to me — I say not alone by them, 
but by the whole population of the country through which we have 
passed. This is as it should be. Had the election fallen to any other 
of the distinguished candidates instead of myself, under the peculiar 
circumstances, to say the least, it would have been proper for all citi- 
zens to have greeted him as you now greet me. It is an evidence of 
the devotion of the whole people to the Constitution, the Union, and 
the perpetuity of the liberties of this country. I am unwilling on any 
occasion that I should be so meanly thought of as to have it supposed 
for a moment that these demonstrations are tendered to me person- 
ally. They are tendered to the country, to the institutions of the 
country, and to the perpetuity of the liberties of the country, for 
which these institutions were made and created. 

Your worthy mayor has thought fit to express the hope that I 
may be able to relieve the country from the present, or, I should say, 
the threatened difficulties. I am sure I bring a heart true to the 
work. For the ability to perform it, I must trust in that Supreme 
Being who has never forsaken this favored land, through the instru- 
mentality of this great and intelligent people. Without that assis- 
tance I shall surely fail; with it, I cannot fail. When we speak of 
threatened difficulties to the country, it is natural that it should be 
expected that something should be said by myself with regard to 
particular measures. Upon more mature reflection, however, others 
will agree with me that, when it is considered that these difficulties 
are without precedent, and have never been acted upon by any indi- 
vidual situated as I am, it is most proper I should wait and see the 
developments, and get all the light possible, so that when I do speak 
authoritatively, I may be as near right as possible. When I shall 



682 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

speak authoritatively, I hope to say nothing inconsistent with the 
Constitution, the Union, the rights of all the States, of each State, 
and of each section of the country, and not to disappoint the rea- 
sonable expectations of those who have confided to me their votes. 
In this connection allow me to say that you, as a portion of the great 
American people, need only to maintain your composure, stand up to 
your sober convictions of right, to your obligations to the Constitu- 
tion, and act in accordance with those sober convictions, and the 
clouds now on the horizon will be dispelled, and we shall have a 
bright and glorious futiu*e; and when this generation has passed 
away, tens of thousands will inhabit this country where only thou- 
sands inhabit it now. I do not propose to address you at length ; 
I have no voice for it. Allow me again to thank you for this mag- 
nificent reception, and bid you farewell. 

February 18, 1861. — Address at Rochester, New York. 

I confess myself, after having seen many large audiences since 
leaving home, overwhelmed with this vast number of faces at this 
hour of the morning. I am not vain enough to believe that you are 
here from any wish to see me as an individual, but because I am for 
the time being the representative of the American people. I could 
not, if I would, address you at any length. I have not the strength, 
even if I had the time, for a speech at each of these many interviews 
that are afforded me on my way to Washington. I appear merely to 
see you, and to let you see me, and to bid you farewell. I hope it will 
be understood that it is from no disinclination to oblige anybody that 
I do not address you at greater length. 

February 18, 1861. — Address at Syracuse, New York. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : I see you have erected a very fine and 
handsome platform here for me, and I presume you expected me 
to speak from it. If I should go upon it, you would imagine 
that I was about to deliver you a much longer speech than I am. 
I wish you to understand that I mean no discourtesy to you by thus 
declining. I intend discourtesy to no one. But I wish you to 
understand that though I am unwilling to go upon this platform, 
you are not at liberty to draw any inferences concerning any other 

f)latform with which my name has been or is connected. I wish you 
ong life and prosperity individually, and pray that with the perpe- 
tuity of those institutions under which we have all so long lived and 
prospered, our happiness may be secured, our future made brilliant, 
and the glorious destiny of our country established forever. I bid 
you a kind farewell. 

February 18, 1861. — Address at Utica, New York. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : I have no speech to make to you, and no 
time to speak in. I appear before you that I may see you, and that 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 683 

you may see me : and I am willing to admit, that so far as the ladies 
are concerned, I nave the best of the bargain, though I wish it to be 
understood that I do not make the same acknowledgment concern- 
ing the men. 

February 18, 1861. — Reply to the Mayor op Albany, New York. 

Mr. Mayor: I can hardly appropriate to myself the flattering 
terms in which you communicate the tender of this reception, as per- 
sonal to myself. I most gratefully accept the hospitalities tendered 
to me, and will not detain you or the audience with any extended 
remarks at this time. I presume that in the two or three courses 
through which I shall have to go, I shall have to repeat some- 
what, and I will therefore only express to you my thanks for this 
kind reception. 

February 18, 1861. — Reply to Governor Morgan op New 
York, at Albany. 

Governor Morgan : I was pleased to receive an invitation to visit 
the capital of the great Empire State of this nation while on my way 
to the Federal capital. I now thank you, Mr. Governor, and you, 
the people of the capital of the State of New York, for this most 
hearty and magnificent welcome. If I am not at fault, the great 
Empire State at this time contains a larger population than did the 
whole of the United States of America at the time they achieved 
their national independence, and I was proud to be invited to visit 
its capital, to meet its citizens, as I now have the honor to do. I am 
notified by your governor that this reception is tendered by citizens 
without distinction of party. Because of this I accept it the more 
gladly. In this country, and in any country where freedom of 
thought is tolerated, citizens attach themselves to political parties. 
It is but an ordinary degree of charity to attribute this act to the 
supposition that in thus attaching themselves to the various parties, 
each man in his own judgment supposes he thereby best advances 
the interests of the whole country. And when an election is past, it 
is altogether befitting a free people, as I suppose, that, until the next 
election, they should be one people. The reception you have ex- 
tended me to-day is not given to me personally, — it should not be 
so, — but as the representative, for the time being, of the majority 
of the nation. If the election had fallen to any of the more dis- 
tinguished citizens who received the support of the people, this same 
honor should have greeted him that greets me this day, in testimony 
of the universal, unanimous devotion of the whole people to the 
Constitution, the Union, and to the perpetual liberties of succeeding 
generations in this country. 

I have neither the voice nor the strength to address you at any 
greater length. I beg you will therefore accept my most grateful 
thanks for this manifest devotion — not to me, but the institutions 
of this great and glorious country. 



684 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



February 18, 1861. — Address to the Legislature of New 
York, at Albany. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the General Assembly of the State 
of New York : It is with feelings of great diffidence, and, I may say, 
with feelings of awe, perhaps greater than I have recently expe- 
rienced, that I meet you here in this place. The history of this great 
State, the renown of those great men who have stood here, and have 
spoken here, and been heard here, all crowd around my fancy, and 
incline me to shrink from any attempt to address you. Yet I have 
some confidence given me by the generous manner in which you 
have invited me, and by the still more generous manner in which 
you have received me, to speak further. You have invited and re- 
ceived me without distinction of party. I cannot for a moment 
suppose that this has been done in any considerable degree with 
reference to my personal services, but that it is done, m so far 
as I am regarded, at this time, as the representative of the majesty 
of this great nation. I doubt not this is the truth, and the whole 
truth, of the case, and this is as it should be. It is much more 
gratifying to me that this reception has been given to me as the 
elected representative of a free people, than it could possibly be if 
tendered merely as an evidence of devotion to me, or to any one 
man personally. 

And now I think it were more fitting that I should close these 
hasty remarks. It is true that, while I hold myseK, without mock 
modesty, the humblest of all individuals that have ever been elevated 
to the presidency, I have a more difficult task to perform than any 
one of them. 

You have generously tendered me the support — the united sup- 
port — of the great Empire State. For this, in behalf of the nation 
— in behalf of the present and future of the nation — in behalf of 
civil and religious liberty for all time to come, most gratefully do I 
thank you. , I do not propose to enter into an explanation of any 
particular line of policy, as to our present difficulties, to be adopted 
by the incoming administration. I deem it just to you, to myself, 
to alL that I should see everything, that I should hear everything, 
^ that I should have every light that can be brought within my reach, 
in order that, when I do so speak, I shall have enjoyed every oppor- 
tunity to take correct and true ground; and for this reason I do 
not propose to speak at this time of the pohcy of the government. / 
But when the time comes, I shall speak, as weU as I am able, for the 
good of the present and future of this country — for the good both 
of the North and of the South — for the good of the one and the 
other, and of all sections of the country. In the mean time, if we 
have patience, if we restrain ourselves, if we allow ourselves not 
to run off in a passion, I still have confidence that the Almighty, 
the Maker of the universe, wiU, through the instrumentality of this 
great and intelligent people, bring us through this as he has through 
all the other difficulties of our country. Kelying on this, I again 
thank you for this generous reception. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 685 



February 19, 1861.— Address at Troy, New York. 

Mr. Mayor and Citizens of Troy : I thank you very kindly for this 
great reception. Since I left my home it has not been my fortune to 
meet an assemblage more numerous and more orderly than this. I 
am the more gi-atified at this mark of your regard, since you assure 
me it is tendered, not to the individual, but to the high office you 
have called me to fill. I have neither sti*ength nor time to make any 
extended remarks on this occasion, and I can only repeat to you 
my sincere thanks for the kind reception you have thought proper 
to extend to me. 



February 19, 1861. — Address at Poughkeepsie, New York. 

Fellow-citizens : It is altogether impossible I should make myself 
heard by any considerable portion of this vast assemblage ; but, al- 
though I appear before you mainly for the purpose of seeing you, and 
to let you see rather than hear me, I cannot refrain from saying that 
I am highly gratified — as much here, indeed, under the circum- 
stances, as I have been anywhere on my route — to witness this noble 
demonstration — made, not in honor of an individual, but of the man 
who at this time humbly, but eai'uestly, represents the majesty of the 
nation. 

This reception, like all the others that have been tendered to me, 
doubtless emanates from all the political parties, and not from one 
alone. As such I accept it the more gratefully, since it indicates an 
earnest desire on the part of the whole people, without regard to polit- 
ical differences, to save — not the country, because the country will 
save itself — but to save the institutions of the country — those insti- 
tutions under which, in the last three quarters of a century, we have 
grown to a great, an intelligent, and a happy people — the gi'eatest, 
the most intelligent, and the happiest people in the world. These 
noble manifestations indicate, with unerring certainty, that the whole 
people are willing to make common cause for this object; that if, as 
it ever must be, some have been successful in the recent election, and 
some have been beaten — if some are satisfied, and some are dissat- 
isfied, the defeated party are not in favor of sinking the ship, but are 
desirous of running it through the tempest in safety, and willing, if 
they think the people have committed an error in their verdict now, 
to wait in the hope of reversing it, and setting it right next time. I 
do not say that in the recent election the people did the wisest thing 
that could have been done ; indeed, I do not think they did ; but I do 
say that in accepting the great trust committed to me, which I do with 
a determination to endeavor to prove worthy of it, I must rely upon 
you, upon the people of the whole country, for support; and with their 
sustaining aid, even I, humble as I am, cannot fail to carry the ship 
of state safely through the storm. 

I have now only to thank you warmly for your kind attendance, 
and bid you all an affectionate farewell. 



686 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



February 19, 1861.— Address at Hudson, New York. 

Fellow-citizens: I see that you have provided a platform, but I 
ghall have to decline standing on it. The superintendent tells me 
t have not time during our brief stay to leave the train. I had to 
decline standing on some very handsome platforms prepared for me 
yesterday. But I say to you, as I said to them, you must not on 
this account draw the inference that I have any intention to desert 
any platform I have a legitimate right to stand on. I do not appear 
before you for the purpose of making a speech. I come only to see 
you, and to give you the opportunity to see me ; and I say to you, 
as I have before said to crowds where there were so many handsome 
ladies as there are here, I think I have decidedly the best of the bar- 
gain. I have only, therefore, to thank you most cordially for this 
kind reception, and bid you all farewell. 



February 19, 1861. — Address at Peekskill, New York. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : I have but a moment to stand before you 
to listen to and return your kind greeting. I thank you for this re- 
ception, and for the pleasant manner in which it is tendered to me 
by our mutual friends. I wiU say in a single sentence, in regard to 
tne difficulties that lie before me and our beloved country, that if I 
can only be as generously and unanimously sustained as the demon- 
strations I have witnessed indicate I shall be, I shall not fail ; but 
without your sustaining hands I am sure that neither I nor any 
other man can hope to surmount these difficulties. I trust that in 
the course I shall pursue I shall be sustained not only by the party 
that elected me, but by the patriotic people of the whole country. 



February 19, 1861. — Address at New York City. 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : I am rather an old man to avail 
myseK of such an excuse as I am now about to do. Yet the truth is 
so distinct, and presses itself so distinctly upon me, that I cannot 
well avoid it — and that is, that I did not understand when I was 
brought into this room that I was to be brought here to make a speech. 
It was not intimated to me that I was brought into the room where 
Daniel Webster and Henry Clay had made speeches, and where one 
in my position might be expected to do something like those men 
or say something worthy of myself or my audience. I therefore beg 
you to make allowance for the circumstances in which I have been 
by surprise brought before you. Now I have been in the habit of 
thinking and sometimes speaking upon political questions that have 
for some years past agitated the country; and, if I were disposed to 
do so, and we could take up some one of the issues, as the lawyers 
call them, and I were called upon to make an argument about it to 
the best of my ability, I could do so without much preparation. But 
that is not what you desire to have done here to-night. 



ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 687 

I have been occupying a position, since the presidential election, of 
silence — of avoiding pubHc speaking, of avoiding public writing. I 
have been doing so because 1 thought, upon full consideration, that 
was the proper course for me to take. I am brought before you now, 
and required to make a speech, when you all approve more than any- 
thing else of the fact that I have been keeping silence. And now 
it seems to me that the response you give to that remark ought to 
justify me in closing just here. I have not kept silence since the 
presidential election from any party wantonness, or from any indif- K' 
I'erence to the anxiety that pervades the minds of men about the 
aspect of the political affairs of this country. I have kept silence for 
the reason that I supposed it was peculiarly proper that I should do 
so until the time came when, according to the custom of the country, 
I could speak officially.,, 

I still suppose that, while the political di'ama being enacted in this 
country, at this time, is rapidly shifting its scenes — forbidding an 
anticipation with any degree of certainty, to-day, of what we shall 
see to-morrow — it is peculiarly fitting that I should see it all, up to 
the last minute, before I should take ground that I might be disposed 
(by the shifting of the scenes afterward) also to shift. I have said 
several times upon this journey, and I now repeat it to you, that 
when the time does come, I shall then take the gi'ound that I think 
is right — right for the North, for the South, for the East, for the 
West, for the whole country. And in doing so, I hope to feel no 
necessity pressing upon me to say anything in conflict with the Con- 
stitution; in conflict with the continued union of these States, in 
conflict with the perpetuation of the liberties of this people, or any- 
thing in conflict with anything whatever that I have ever given you 
reason to expect from me. And now, my friends, have I said enough ? 
[Loud cries of '' No, no ! " and " Three cheers for Lincoln ! "] Now, my 
friends, there appears to be a difference of opinion between you and 
me, and I really feel called upon to decide the question myself. 



February 20, 1861. — Reply to the Mayor op New York City. 

Mr. Mayor : It is with feelings of deep gratitude that I make my 
acknowledgments for the reception that has been given me in the 
great commercial city of New York. I cannot but remember that 
it is done by the people who do not, by a large majority, agree with 
me in political sentiment. It is the more grateful to me because in 
this I see that for the great principles of our government the people 
are pretty nearly or quite unanimous. In regard to the difficulties 
that confront us at this time, and of which you have seen fit to speak so 
becomingly and so justly, I can only say I agree with the sentiments 
expressed. In my devotion to the Union I hope I am behind no man 
iu the nation. As to my wisdom in conducting affairs so as to tend 
to the preservation of the Union, I fear too great confidence may 
have been placed in me. I am sure I brin^ a heart devoted to the 
work. There is nothing that could ever bring me to consent — will- 
ingly to consent — to the destruction of this Union (in which not 



688 ADDRESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN" 

only the great city of New York, but the whole country, has acquired 
its greatness), unless it would be that thing for which the Union 
itself was made. I understand that the ship is made for the carry- 
ing and preservation of the cargo ; and so long as the ship is safe 
with the cargo, it shall not be abandoned. This Union shall never 
be abandoned, unless the possibility of its existence shall cease to 
exist without the necessity of throwing passengers and cargo over- 
board. So long, then, as it is possible that the prosperity and 
liberties of this people can be preserved within this Union, it shall be 
my purpose at all times to preserve it. And now, Mr. Mayor, re- 
newing my thanks for this cordial reception, allow me to come to a 
close. 

February 21, 1861.— Address to the Senate of New Jersey. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Senate of the State of New 
Jersey : I am very grateful to you for the honorable reception of 
which I have been the object. I cannot but remember the place that 
New Jersey holds in our early history. In the Revolutionary strug- 
gle few of the States among the Old Thirteen had more of the battle- 
fields of the country within their limits than New Jersey. May I be 
pardoned if, upon this occasion, I mention that away back in my 
childhood, the earliest days of my being able to read, I got hold of 
a small book, such a one as few of the younger members have ever 
seen — Weems' '^ Life of Washington." I remember all the accounts 
there given of the battle-fields and struggles for the liberties of the 
country, and none fixed themselves upon my imagination so deeply 
as the struggle here at Trenton, New Jersey. The crossing of the 
river, the contest with the Hessians, the great hardships endured 
at that time, all fixed themselves on my memory more than any 
single Revolutionary event ; and you all know, for you have all been 
boys, how these early impressions last longer than any others. I 
recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must 
have been something more than common that these men struggled 
for. I am exceedingly anxious that that thing — that something 
even more than national independence ; that something that held out 
a great promise to all the people of the world to all time to come — 
I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the 
liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the 
original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most 
happy indeed if I shall be a humble instrument in the hands of the 
Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating 
the object of that great struggle. You give me this reception, as I 
understand, without distinction of party. I learn that this body is 
composed of a majority of gentlemen who, in the exercise of their 
best judgment in the choice of a chief magistrate, did not think I 
was the man. I understand, nevertheless, that they come forward 
here to greet me as the constitutionally elected President of the 
United States— as citizens of the United States to meet the man 
who, for the time being, is the representative of the majesty of the 
nation — united by the single purpose to perpetuate the Constitu- 
tion, the Union, and the liberties of the people. As such, I accept 



ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 689 

this reception more gratefully than I could do did I believe it were 
tendered to me as an individual. 



February 21, 1861. — Address to the Assembly of New Jersey. 

Mr. Spealter and OentJemen : I have just enjoyed the honor of a 
reception by the other branch of this legislature, and I return to 
you and them my thanks for the reception which the people of New 
Jersey have given through their chosen representatives to me as the 
representative, for the time being, of the majesty of the people of 
the United States. I appropriate to myself very little of the demon- 
strations of respect with which I have been greeted. I think little 
should be given to any man, but that it should be a manifestation 
of adherence to the Union and the Constitution. I understand my- 
self to be received here by the representatives of the people of New 
Jersey, a majority of whom differ in opinion from those with whom 
I have acted. This manifestation is therefore to be regarded by me 
as expressing their devotion to the Union, the Constitution, and the 
liberties of the people. 

You, Mr. Speaker, have well said that this is a time when the bra- 
vest and wisest look with doubt and awe upon the aspect presented by 
our national affairs. Under these circumstances you will readily see 
why I should not speak in detail of the course I shall deem it best 
to pursue. It is proper that I should avail myself of all the infor- 
mation and all the time at my command, in order that when the 
time arrives in which I must speak officially, I shall be able to take 
the ground which I deem best and safest, and from which I may 
have no occasion to swerve. I shall endeavor to take the ground I 
deem most just to the North, the East, the West, the South, and the 
whole country. I take it, I hope, in good temper, certainly with no 
malice toward any section. I shall do all that may be in my power 
to promote a peaceful settlement of all our difficulties. The man 
does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am, none who 
would do more to preserve it, but it may be necessary to put the 
foot down firmly. [Here the audience broke out into cheers so loud 
and long that for some moments it was impossible to hear Mr. Lin- 
coln's voice.] And if I do my duty and do right, you will sustain 
me, will you not ? [Loud cheers, and cries of " Yes, yes ; we will."] 
Received as I am by the members of a legislature the majority oi 
whom do not agree with me in political sentiments, I trust that I 
may have their assistance in piloting the ship of state through this 
voyage, surrounded by perils as it is ; for if it should suffer wreck 
now, there will be no pilot ever needed for another voyage. 

Gentlemen, I have already spoken longer than I intended, and 
must beg leave to stop here. 

February 21, 1861.— Reply to the Mayor of Philadelphl^, 
Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Mayor and Fellow-citizens of Philadelphia : I appear before 
you to make no lengthy speech, but to thank you for this reception. 
Vol. L— 44. 



690 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

The reception you have given me to-night is not to me, the man, the 
individual, but to the man who temporarily represents, or should 
represent, the majesty of the nation. It is true, as your worthy 
mayor has said, that there is great anxiety amongst the citizens of 
the United States at this time. I deem it a happy circumstance that 
this dissatisfied portion of our fellow-citizens does not point us to 
anything in which they are being injured or about to be injured; 
for which reason I have felt all the while justified in concluding 
that the crisis, the panic, the anxiety of the country at this time, is 
ai'tificial. If there be those who differ with me upon this subject, 
they have not pointed out the substantial difficulty that exists. I 
do not mean to say that an artificial panic may not do considerable 
harm ; that it has done such I do not deny. The hope that has been 
expressed by your mayor, that I may be able to restore peace, har- 
mony, and prosperity to the country, is most worthy of him; and 
most happy, indeed, will I be if I shall be able to verify and fulfil 
that hope. I promise you that I bring to the work a sincere heart. 
Whether I will bring a head equal to that heart will be for future 
times to determine. It were useless for me to speak of details of 
plans now ; I shall speak officially next Monday week, if ever. If I 
should not speak then, it were useless for me to do so now. If I do 
speak then, it is useless for me to do so now. When I do speak, I 
shall take such ground as I deem best calculated to restore peace, 
harmony, and prosperity to the country, and tend to the perpetuity 
of the nation and the liberty of these States and these people. Your 
worthy mayor has expressed the wish, in which I join with him, that 
it were convenient for me to remain in your city long enough to 
consult your merchants and manufacturers; or, as it were, to listen 
to those breathings rising within the consecrated walls wherein the 
Constitution of the United States, and, I will add, the Declaration 
of Independence, were originally framed and adopted. I assure you 
and your mayor that I had hoped on this occasion, and upon aU occa- 
sions during my life, that I shall do nothing inconsistent with the 
teachings of these holy and most sacred waUs. I have never asked 
anything that does not breathe from those walls. All my politi- 
cal warfare has been in favor of the teachings that come forth 
from these sacred waUs. May my right hand forget its cunning 
and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if ever I prove false 
to those teachings. Fellow-citizens, I have addressed you longer 
than I expected to do, and now allow me to bid you good-night. 



February 22, 1861. — Address m Independence Hall, 
Philadelphl^. 

Mr. Guyler : I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself 
standing in this place, where were collected together the wisdom, 
the patriotism, the devotion to principle, from which sprang the 
institutions under which we live. You have kindly suggested to me 
that in my hands is the task of restoring peace to our distracted 
country. I can say in return, sir, that all the political sentiments I 



ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 691 

entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, 
from the sentiments which originated in and were given to the world 
from this hall. I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not 
spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred 
by the men who assembled here and framed and adopted that Dec- 
laration. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by 
the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that independence. 
I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was 
that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere 
matter of separation of the colonies from the motherland, but that 
sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty 
not alone to the people of this country, but hope to all the world, for 
all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time 
the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that 
aU should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in 
the Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this coun- 
try be saved on that basis ? If it can, I will consider myself one of 
the happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it cannot 
be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this 
country cannot be saved without gi"v^ng up that principle, I was about 
to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it. 
Now, in my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of 
bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor 
of such a course ; and I may say in advance that there wiU be no 
bloodshed unless it is forced upon the government. The govern- 
ment will not use force, unless force is used against it. 

My friends, this is wholly an unprepared speech. I did not expect 
to be called on to say a word when I came here. I supposed I was 
merely to do something toward raising a flag. I may, therefore, 
have said something indiscreet. [Cries of " No, no."] But I have 
said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, if it be the 
pleasure of Almighty God, to die by. 



February 22, 1861. — Address on Raising a Flag over 
Independence Hall, Philadelphia. 

FeJloiv-citizens: 1 am invited and called before you to participate in 
raising above Independence Hall the flag of our country, with an ad- 
ditional star upon it.^ I propose now, in advance of performing this 
very pleasant and complimentary duty, to say a few words. I pro- 
pose to say that when the flag was originally raised here, it had but 
thirteen stars. I wish to call your attention to the fact that, under 
the blessing of God, each additional star added to that flag has given 
additional prosperity and happiness to this coimtry, until it has ad- 
vanced to its present condition ; and its welfare in the future, as 
well as in the past, is in your hands. Cultivating the spirit that 
animated our fathers, who gave renown and celebrity to this hall, 

1 The State of Kansas, which was admitted into the Union January 29, 1861. 



692 ADDEESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

cherishing that fraternal feeling which has so long characterized us as 
a nation, excluding passion, iU temper, and precipitate action on aU 
occasions, I think we may promise ourselves that not only the new 
star placed upon that flag shall be permitted to remain there to our 
permanent prosperity for years to come, but additional ones shall 
from time to time be placed there until we shall number, as it was 
anticipated by the great historian, five hundred millions of happy 
and prosperous people. 

With these few remarks I proceed to the very agreeable duty 
assigned to me. 



February 22, 1861.— Reply to Governor Curtin op 
Pennsylvanl^, AT Harrisburg. 

Governor Curtin and Citizens of the State of Pennsylvania : Perhaps 
the best thing that I could do would be simply to indorse the 
patriotic and eloquent speech which your governor has just made in 
your hearing. I am quite sure that I am unable to address to you 
anything so appropriate as that which he has uttered. 

Reference has been made by him to the distraction of the public 
mind at this time and to the great task that is before me in entering 
upon the administration of the General Government. With all the 
eloquence and ability that your governor brings to this theme, I am 
quite sure he does not — in his situation he cannot — appreciate as 
I do the weight of that great responsibility. I feel that, under God, 
in the strength of the arms and wisdom of the heads of these masses, 
after all, must be my support. As I have often had occasion to say, 
I repeat to you — I am quite sure I do not deceive myself when I tell 
you I bring to the work an honest heart ; I dare not tell you that I 
bring a head sufficient for it. If my own strength should fail, I shall 
at least fall back upon these masses, who, I think, under any cir- 
cumstances will not fail. 

Allusion has been made to the peaceful principles upon which this 
great commonwealth was originally settled. Allow me to add my 
meed of praise to those peaceful principles. I hope no one of the 
Friends who originally settled here, or who lived here since that 
time, or who lives here now, has been or is a more devoted lover of 
peace, harmony, and concord than my humble self. 

While I have been proud to see to-day the finest military array, I 
think, that I have ever seen, allow me to say, in regard to tnose men, 
that they give hope of what may be done when war is inevitable. 
But, at the same time, allow me to express the hope that in the shed- 
ding of blood their services may never be needed, especially in the 
shedding of fraternal blood. It shall be my endeavor to preserve 
the peace of this country so far as it can possibly be done consis- 
tently with the maintenance of the institutions of the country. With 
my consent, or without my great displeasure, this country shaU 
never witness the shedding of one drop of blood in fraternal strife. 

And now, my fellow-citizens, as I have made many speeches, will 
you allow me to bid you farewell? 



ADDEESSES AND LETTEES OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN 693 

February 22, 1861.— Address to the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania, at Harrisburg. 

Mr. Speaker of the Senate, and also Mr. Speaker of the House of 
EepresenMives, and Gentlemen of the General AssemUy of the State 
of Pennsylvania : I appear before you only for a very few brief re- 
marks in response to what has been said to me. I thank you most 
sincerely for this reception, and the generous words in which sup- 
port has been promised me upon this occasion. I thank your great 
commonwealth for the overwhelming support it recently gave, not 
me personally, but the cause which I thmk a just one, in the late 
election. 

Allusion has been made to the fact — the interesting fact perhaps 
we should say — that I for the first time appear at the capital of the 
great commonwealth of Pennsylvania upon the birthday of the 
Father of his Country. In connection with that beloved anniver- 
sary connected with the history of this country, I have already gone 
through one exceedingly interesting scene this morning in the cere- 
monies at Philadelphia. Under the kind conduct of gentlemen there, 
I was for the first time allowed the pri\'ilege of standing in old In- 
dependence Hall to have a few words addressed to me there, and 
opening up to me an opportunity of manifesting my deep regret 
that I had not more time to express something of my own feelings 
excited by the occasion, that had been really the feelings of my 
whole life. 

Besides this, our friends there had provided a magnificent flag of 
the country. They had arranged it so that I was given the honor of 
raising it to the head of its staff, and when it went up I was pleased 
that it went to its place by the strength of my own feeble arm. 
When, according to the arrangement, the cord was pulled, and it 
floated gloriously to the wind, without an accident, in the bright, 
glowing sunshine of the morning, I could not help hoping that there 
was in the entire success of that beautiful ceremony at least some- 
thing of au omen of what is to come. Nor could I help feeling then, 
as I have often felt, that in the whole of that proceeding I was a very 
humble instrument. I had not provided the flag ; I had not made 
the arrangements for elevating it to its place ; I had applied but a 
very small portion of even my feeble strength in raising it. In the 
whole transaction I was in the hands of the people who had arranged 
it, and if I can have the same generous cooperation of the people of 
this nation, I think the flag of our country may yet be kept flaunt- 
ing gloriously. 

I recur for a moment but to repeat some words uttered at the 
hotel in regard to what has been said about the military support 
which the General Government may expect from the commonwealth 
of Pennsylvania in a proper emergency. To guard against any pos- 
sible mistake do I recur to this. It is not with any pleasure that I 
contemplate the possibility that a necessity may arise in this country 
for the use of the military ai*m. While I am exceedingly gratified to 
see the manifestation upon your streets of your military force here, 



694 ADDKESSES AND LETTEKS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

and exceedingly gratified at your promise to use that force upon a 
proper emergency — while I make these acknowledgments I desire to 
repeat, in order to preclude any possible misconstruction, that I do 
most sincerely hope that we shaU have no use for them ; that it wiU 
never become their duty to shed blood, and most especially never to 
shed fraternal blood. I promise that so far as I may have wisdom 
to direct, if so painful a result shall in any wise be brought about, it 
shall be through no fault of mine. 

Allusion has also been made by one of your honored speakers to 
some remarks recently made by myself at Pittsburg in regard to 
what is supposed to be the especial interest of this great common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania. I now wish only to say in regard to that 
matter, that the few remarks which I uttered on that occasion were 
rather carefully worded. I took pains that they should be so. I 
have seen no occasion since to add to them or subtract from them. 
I leave them precisely as they stand, adding only now that I am 
pleased to have an expression from you, gentlemen of Pennsylvania, 
signifying that they are satisfactory to you. 

And now, gentlemen of the General Assembly of the Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania, allow me again to return to you my most 
sincere thanks. 



February 27, 1861.— Reply to the Mayor of Washington, D. C. 

Mr. Mayor: I thank you, and through you the municipal authori- 
ties of this city who accompany you, for this welcome. And as it is 
the first time in my life, since the present phase of politics has pre- 
sented itself in this country, that I have said anything publicly 
within a region of country where the institution of slavery exists, I 
will take this occasion to say that I think very much of the ill feel- 
ing that has existed and still exists between the people in the section 
from which I came and the people here, is dependent upon a mis- 
understanding of one another. I therefore avail myself of this 
opportunity to assure you, Mr. Mayor, and all the gentlemen present, 
that I have not now, and never have had, any other than as kindly 
feelings toward you as to the people of my own section. I have not 
now, and never have had, any disposition to treat you in any respect 
otherwise than as my own neighbors, I have not now any purpose 
to withhold from you any of the benefits of the Constitution, under 
any circumstances, that I would not feel myself constrained to with- 
hold from my own neighbors; and I hope, in a word, that when we 
shall become better acquainted — and I say it with great confidence 
— we shall like each other better. I thank you for the kindness of 
this reception. 

February 28, 1861. — Reply to a Serenade at Washington, D. C. 

My Friends : I suppose that I may take this as a compliment paid 
to me, and as such please accept my thanks for it. I have reached 
this city of Washington under circumstances considerably differing 



ADDKESSES AND LETTERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 695 

from those under which any other man has ever reached it. I am 
here for the purpose of taking an official position amongst the people, 
almost all of whom were politically opposed to me, and are yet op- 
posed to me, as I suppose. 

I propose no lengthy address to you. I only propose to say, as I 
did on yesterday, when your worthy mayor and board of aldermen 
called upon me, that I thought much of the ill feeling that has ex- 
isted between you and the people of your surroundings and that 
people from among whom I came, has depended, and now depends, 
upon a misunderstanding. 

I hope that, if things shall go along as prosperously as I believe 
we all desire they may, I may have it in my power to remove some- 
thing of this misunderstanding ; that I may be enabled to convince 
you, and the people of your section of the country, that we regard 
you as in all things oiu* equals, and in all things entitled to the same 
respect and the same treatment that we claim for ourselves ; that 
we are in no wise disposed, if it were in oui- power, to oppress you, 
to deprive you of any of your rights under the Constitution of the 
United States, or even narrowly to split hairs with you in regard to 
these rights, but are determined to give you, as far as lies in our 
hands, all your rights under the Constitution — not grudgingly, but 
fully and fairly. I hope that, by thus deahng with you, we will be- 
come better acquainted, and be better friends. 

And now, my friends, with these few remarks, and again returning 
my thanks for this compliment, and expressing my desire to hear a 
little more of your good music, I bid you good-night. 

March 1, 1861. — Letter to Wm. H. Seward. 

{Private.) 

Willard's Hotel, Washington, March 1, 1861. 
Hon. W. H. Seward. 

Dear Sir : If a successor to General Twiggs is attempted to be 
appointed, do not allow it to be done. 

Yours in haste, A. Lincoln. 



end of vol. I. 



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